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JUSTIFICATION  BY  FAITH 


CHARGE 


DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  CLERGY 


PROTESTANT  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 


DIOCESE  OF  OHIO, 


AND    AT   Tfi2    TWENTY-SECOND    ANNUA!    CONVENTION-    OF   THE    DI0CE3H,    JN 
ST.    PAUL'S   CHURCH,   STEUBENVILLE, 


SEPTEMBER  13,  IS39. 


WITH    AN    APPENDIX. 


BY    THE/' 

RT.  REV.  CHARLES  P.  McILVAINE,  D.  D. 

BISHOP  OF  TUB  PROTESTANT   EPISCOPAL    CHURCH   IN  THE  DIOCESE   OF  OHIO, 


columbus: 

ISAAC    N .    WHITING. 

M  DCCC  XL. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1840,  by 

Isaac  N.  Whiting, 

in  the  Clerk' a  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of 
Ohio. 


WESTERN  CHURCH  PRESS: 
PRINTED     BY     THOMAS     R.      RAYMOND. 

Gambier,  Ohio. 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


It  was  intended  that  the  Appendix  to  this  Charge, 
should  contain  an  examination  of  the  doctrine  of  certain 
gentlemen  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  recently  published 
in  this  country,  on  the  subject  of  Justification.  But  the 
writer  has  concluded  that  to  occupy  enough  room  for  a 
proper  treatment  of  that  doctrine  would  too  much  increase 
the  bulk  of  this  publication.  The  close  application,  by  way 
of  contrast,  of  the  views  herein  expressed,  to  that  alluded 
to,  may  suffice  for  the'  objects  of  an  Episcopal  Charge. — ■ 
The  Examination  intended,  will  make  a  separate  work,  and 
is  nearly  ready  for  the  press. 


ERRATA. 

Page  69,  7th  line  from  bottom,  for  "condemned  unto  sin," 

read,  concluded  under  sin. 

Page  7J,  2d  line  from  bottom,  for  "  Besure,"  read,  Be  sure, 
Page  81,  3d  line  from  bottom,  in  some  copies,  for  usanc- 

tification,"  read,  satisfaction. 

Page  89,  note,  for  "c.  v.,"  read,  b.  v. 

Page  103,  note,  in  some  copies,  for  "  virture,"  read,  virtue 

Page  131,  10th  line  from  top,  in  some  copies,  for  "sancti- 

fication,"  read,  satisfaction. 


PREFACE 


It  is  due  to  the  Convention,  at  whose  request 
this  Charge  is  published,  to  say  that  although, 
in  its  present  form,  it  contains  many  pages 
which  were  not  connected  with  it  as  delivered ; 
nothing  has  been  added,  in  point  of  doctrine, 
which  was  not  substantially  before  the  Conven- 
tion when  the  publication  was  requested.  The 
unexpected  delay  in  the  issue  from  the  press, 
has  arisen  from  the  desire  of  the  author  to  make 
such  arrangements  with  a  publisher,  as  would 
relieve  the  Diocese  from  much  of  the  expense  of 
the  edition.  —  It  has  been  said  that  the  Charge 
was  directed  against  the  Oxford  Tracts.  The 
fact  is  adverted  to,  because  otherwise  it  might 
cause  a  misinterpretation  of  some  detriment  to 
the  object  of  the  writer.  Doubtless  the  peculiar- 
ities of  the  recent  Oxford  divinity,  on  the  subject 


of  Justification,  were  often  in  view  in  the  writing 
of  the  Charge ;  and  the  author  has  no  question 
that  there  is  serious  error  enough  in  that  divini- 
ty, on  this  one  subject,  to  furnish  subject-matter 
for  much  more  than  an  Episcopal  Charge ;  but 
the  reader  will  be  disappointed  if  he  expects  to 
trace  a  reference  thereto  m  every  part  of  this 
publication.  Distinctly  to  exhibit  certain  main 
truths  involved  in  the  great  matter  of  a  sinner's 
Justification  before  God,  and  to  point  out  certain 
main  errors  in  that  connection,  has  been  the  sin- 
gle object  of  the  writer. 


CHARGE 


Brethren  in  the  Holy  Ministry  : 

In  considering  by  what  means  I  might 
best  promote  the  usefulness  of  our  pres- 
ent Convention,  I  have  been  led  to  sup- 
pose that  a  Charge  on  some  of  the  great 
duties  of  your  high  calling,  would  be 
seasonable  and  welcome.  The  selection 
however  of  some  single  and  well-defined 
subject,  has  been  the  difficulty;  not  that 
appropriate  subjects  are  scarce,  but  be- 
cause from  the  fewness  of  the  occasions 
on  which  we  thus  address  you,  those 
which  seem  importunately  to  claim  a 
conspicuous  introduction,  are  so  numer- 
ous and  various. 

But  in  reflecting  upon  the  duties  of 
the  Episcopate  as  exercised  by  that  emi- 


tient  example  of  all  ministerial  faithful- 
ness, the  Apostle  St.  Paul,  his  earnest 
charges  to  ministers  as  to  their  doc- 
trine, occurred  to  my  mind ; — such  as 
those  in  which  Timothy  is  directed  to 
"give  attendance  to  reading,  to  exhor- 
tation, to  doctrine"  to  "rebuke  and  ex- 
hort with  all  long-suffering  and  doctrine  " 
"in  doctrine  shewing  uncorruptness,  gra- 
vity, sincerity  ;"  especially  that  in  which 
he  is  enjoined  to  "take  heed"  to  his  doc- 
trine, as  well  as  to  himself,  because  in  so 
doing  he  should  both  save  himself  and 
those  that  heard  him.  These,  as  well  as 
similar  passages  in  the  Epistle  to  Titus, 
afford  an  impressive  example  to  those 
who  have  succeeded,  not  indeed  to  the 
name,  but  essentially  to  the  office  of  the 
Apostles,  of  the  concern  they  should  feel 
and  the  care  they  should  take,  that  the 
ministers  over  whom  they  are  placed  in 
the  Lord,  should  not  only  be  well  ground- 
ed in  sound  doctrine,  but  so  faithful 
and  well  skilled  in  setting  it  forth,  clearly, 
forcibly  and  fully,  to  the  understanding 


and  conscience  and  heart,  that  their 
hearers  may  be  "rooted  and  built  up  in 
Christ  and  stablished  in  the  faith."  This 
example,  I  desire,  my  beloved  brethren, 
as  much  as  in  me  lies,  to  imitate.  Feel- 
ing a  very  deep  sense  of  the  importance 
of  having  our  several  flocks  accurately 
and  firmly  indoctrinated,  as  well  for  the 
consistency,  fruitfulness  and  steadfastness 
of  individual  Christians,  as  for  the  perma- 
nent interests  of  true  religion  in  the 
whole  church,  I  would  urge  upon  myself 
and  you,  the  duty  of  giving  great  heed  to 
Christian  doctrine  in  general ;  but  most 
particularly  to  those  prominent  parts  of 
the  doctrine  of  Christ  on  which  the  spirit- 
ual life  and  power  of  the  Church  and  her 
ministry  most  essentially  depend;  and 
this,  not  only  that  we  may  be  well  estab- 
lished in  the  truth  and  well  furnished  for 
its  defence,  with  sound  speech  that  cannot 
be  condemned ;  but  that  we  may  fully 
teach  sound  doctrine  ;  that  our  preaching 
may  be  decidedly  doctrinal,  as  well  as 
practical ;    never  attempting  to  enforce 


10 

christian  practice  without  joining  it  close- 
ly with  christian  doctrine,  as  alone  fur- 
nishing its  reason  and  principles. 

That  I  may  contribute  something  to 
your  furtherance  in  this,  I  have  selected 
tor  the  subject  of  this  charge  the  doctrine 
of  Justification  by  Faith;  one  which  you 
all  know  is  of  the  most  vital  importance 
in  the  system  of  Gospel  truth,  and  should 
therefore  receive  the  careful  study  of  all 
whose  office  it  is  to  teach  the  way  of  sal- 
vation. Not  only  do  I  most  fully  believe 
in  the  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith, 
as  the  Scriptures,  on  that  subject,  are  in- 
terpreted in  the  standards  of  our  Church ; 
but  I  do  also  believe  that  it  is  of  the  very 
highest  importance  to  all  efficiency  in  a 
minister,  that  he  should  exhibit  it,  line 
upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  here  a 
little  and  there  a  little,  sometimes  at 
large,  in  some  extent  habitually,  and 
always  with  reference  to  the  enforcement 
of  precisely  those  main  points  of  the 
doctrine,  on  which  the  Church,  in  her 
Articles  and  Homilies,  has  most  emphati- 


11 

cally  insisted.  It  is  a  great  thing  gained 
when  a  minister  has  acquired  the  knowl- 
edge and  the  skill,  as  well  as  the  spirit,  to 
do  this.  Always  should  he  be  studying 
the  improvement  of  his  ministry  in  this 
main  branch  of  its  message.  Here  may 
we  all  be  learners,  as  long  as  the  personal 
experience  of  the  blessedness  of  divine 
truth  shall  have  any  more  spiritual  dis- 
cernment to  impart,  or  the  personal  ob- 
servation of  man  shall  have  any  more 
knowledge  of  the  relative  bearing  of  the 
gospel  upon  the  varied  conditions  of  the 
human  mind  and  heart  to  communicate. 
Not  counting  myself  to  have  already  at- 
tained any  thing  on  this  subject,  that  may 
not  be  equally  possessed  by  many  of  you, 
my  dear  brethren,  who  have  had  much 
experience  in  the  ministry;  feeling  my 
mind  indeed  entirely  settled  in  the  doc- 
trine, but  desiring,  as  heretofore,  so 
always  hereafter,  to  be  improving  in  the 
method  of  illustrating  and  enforcing  it ; 
my  whole  object  in  this  charge  will  be,, 
not  the  teaching  of  what  you  may  not  be 


12 

supposed  substantially  to  know  already ; 
not  the  correction  of  any  errors  on  this 
subject  supposed  to  exist  among  you ; 
but,  knowing  your  substantial  agreement 
with  the  doctrine  as  declared  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  embodied  in  the  standard 
writings  of  the  Church  ;  my  object  will 
be  answered  if  I  can  contribute  to  make 
any  of  you  not  only  more  deeply  sensible 
of  the  relative  importance  of  this  doc- 
trine in  your  ministry,  and  very  earnest 
to  get  the  clearest  views  of  it  in  all  its 
part£  and  connections  ;  but  also  more  dis- 
criminating in  your  views,  more  lucid  in 
your  statements,  more  direct  and  im- 
pressive in  your  applications,  more  effec- 
tive for  the  highest  objects  of  your  office, 
in  your  whole  method  of  preaching  to 
sinners,  "  the  way,  the  truth,  the  life," 
"the  Lardy  our  Righteousness" 

The  main  endeavour  of  this  discourse 
will  be,  to  illustrate  the  doctrine  of  Scrip- 
hire,  as  interpreted  and  declared  in  the 
standards  of  our  Church,  on  the  more 
prominent  topics  involved  in  the  Sinner's 
Justification  before  God. 


13 


On  no  point  of  doctrinal  confession, 
are  the  declarations  of  the  Church  more 
full,  more  reiterated,  or  more  earnest. 
There  is  first,  an  Article,  entitled,  "  Of 
the  Justification  of  Man,"  in  which  the 
doctrine  is  summarilv  declared,  in  these 
words:  "We  are  accounted  righteous  he- 
fore  God,  only  for  the  merit  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  by  Faith,  and 
not  for  our  own  works  and  deservings" 
And  then  on  the  subject  of  "our  oxen 
works  and  deservings"  as  rejected  from 
Justification,  we  have  two  more  Articles ; 
the  one  entitled,  "Of  Works  done  before 
Justification"  which  excludes  them  from 
all  efficacy  to  make  men  meet  to  receive 
grace,  or  deserve  it  "of  congndty,"  be- 
cause "not  pleasant  to  God,  forasmuch  as 
they  spring  not  of  Faith  in  Jesus  Christ, 
and  have  the  nature  of  sin;"  the  other,  of 
"Works  which  are  the  Fruits  of  Faith, 
and  follow  after  Justification  ;  "  declar- 
ing that  though  the  necessary  results  of  a 
lively  faith,  and  pleasing  to  God  in  Christ, 
they  "cannot  put  away  our  sins" 


14 


Thus  have  three  distinct  Articles  been 
expended  on  this  subject. 

But  the  Framers  of  our  Confession 
were  not  content  with  this.  They  re- 
garded the  doctrine  of  "Justification,  by 
which,  of  unjust,  we  are  made  just  be- 
fore God,"  as  "the  strong  rock  and  foun- 
dation of  Christian  religion"  *  The  his- 
tory of  all  the  subtle  devices  by  which 
Satan  had  in  every  age  endeavored  to 
undermine  that  "rock,"  was  before  them. 
The  war,  then  at  its  height,  with  the 
corruptions  of  Romanism;  the  Council 
of  Trent,  then  sitting  and  fulminating 
its  Anathemas  against  the  holders  of  the 
truth,  secured  their  due  remembrance  of 
that  history.  It  taught  them  the  neces- 
sity of  greater  minuteness  of  declaration 
than  was  contained  in  the  Articles  above 
named.  Homilies  were  therefore  used 
for  larger  exposition.  The  Article  on 
Justification  refers  the  reader  for  a  fuller 
view  of  the  faith  of  the  Church,  to  "the 
Homily  of  Justification"     The   Homily 

*  Homily  of  Salvation,  Part  ii. 


15 


entitled  "On  the  salvation  of  mankind, 
by  only  Christ  our  Saviour"  is,  by  uni- 
versal acknowledgment,  the  one  referred 
to;  though  it  is  not  known  by  what 
means,  or  when,  its  title  was  changed 
from  that  given  in  the  Article.  But  this 
is  not  the  only  homiletic  exposition  bear- 
ing upon  the  subject.  The  doctrine  of 
the  Church  on  Faith,  and  also  on  Good 
Works,  is  essentially  connected  with  that 
of  Justification.  We  have  therefore  a 
standard  Homily  on  each ;  so  that  there 
are  three  Homilies  or  Sermons,  each  in 
three  parts,  all  asserted  in  our  35th  Arti- 
cle to  "contain  a  godly  and  wholesome 
doctrine;"  "all  of  which  together  com- 
pose and  make  a  treatise  on  Justification, 
and  all  of  which  are  to  be  referred  to  for 
explaining  the  sense  of  the  Church  in  her 
Article  on  that  subject."  * 

Now,  with  these  combined  and  minute 
expositions,  so  remarkable  for  precision 
of  language  and  perspicuity  of  illustra- 
tion, formed  too  with  particular  reference 

*  Ridley's  Life  of  Ridley,  p.  344. 


16 


to  the  very  points  on  which  errors  have 
arisen,  it  would  seem  impossible  that  the 
sense  of  the  Church  should  be  mistaken. 

But  a  recollection  of  the  particular 
models  and  men,  most  referred  to  in  the 
construction  of  these  formularies,  as  well 
as  of  those  particular  corruptions  of  the 
truth  against  which  they  were  aimed,  if 
it  may  not  make  their  meaning  more  ob- 
vious, will  at  least  render  it  more  emphatic 
and  impressive. 

Of  the  Articles  which  were  framed  in 
1551,  and  which,  on  the  subjects  involved 
in  this  discourse,  the  changes  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth  did  not  materially  affect, 
"Archbishop  Cranmer  must  be  considered 
as  the  sole  compiler."  *  Of  the  first  book 
of  Homilies,  with  which  chiefly  we  are 
concerned  in  this  Charge,  the  same  Refor- 
mer is  believed,  by  the  best  authorities, 
to  have  been  the  chief  composer,  as  was 
Jewell  of  the  second.  But  the  Homilies 
on  Salvation,  Faith,  and  Good  works,  to 
which  the  Article  of  Justification  is,  espe- 

*  Soamc's  Hist,  of  the  Reform.,  vol.  iii.  648.     Strype's 
Life  of  Cranmer,  b.  ii.,  c.  xxvii. 


17 

cially  related,  are  without  a  question  as- 
cribed exclusively  to  Cranmer.*  Now  it 
is  well  known  that  a  frequent  correspond- 
ence on  the  most  important  matters  of 
the  Reformation  was  kept  up  between 
him  and  the  continental  Divines,  espe- 
cially Melancthon.  The  latter  was  par- 
ticularly consulted  on  the  subject  of  the 
Articles,  and  is  known  to  have  urged,  for 
a  model,  the  Confession  of  Augsburgh.t 
Hence  the  Articles  of  the  English  Church 
"chiefly  derive  their  origin  fromLutheran 
Formularies.  Some  of  them  are  drawn 
from  the  Confession  of  Augsburgh,  others 
from  that  of  Wittemberg,  known  as  the 
Saxon  Confession,  and  professedly  drawn 
up  in  strict  accordance  with  that  of  Augs- 
burgh."{  "  The  truth  of  the  matter  is, 
(says  Le  Bas,)  that  the  English  Reform- 
ers framed  their  Articles  not  as  a  wall  of 

*  Tomline's  Elements  of  Theology,  ii,  535.  Soame,  iii. 
63.  Todd  on  the  39  Art.  pref.  p.  ii.  Strype's  Cranmer, 
b.  ii.  c.  in. 

t  Strype's  Life  of  Cranmer,  b.  iii..  c.  xxiv.  A  son  of 
Justus  Jonas,  the  friend  and  fellow- labourer  of  Luther  and 
Melancthon,  resided  with  Cranmer  and  seems  to  have  been 
his  chief  medium  of  correspondence  with  the  Lutherans'.- — 
Lawrence  s  Hampton  Lectures,  p.  210. 

t  Soame,  iii.  p.  G52. 

2 


18 

partition  between  Protestant  and  Prot- 
estant, but  as  a  bulwark  against  the  per- 
versions with  which  the  scholastic  theol- 
ogy had  disfigured  the  simplicity  of  the 
Gospel.  —  The  only  key  therefore  which 
can  readily  unlock  the  true  sense  of  the 
Articles,  is  a  knowledge,  not  of  the 
opinions  which  afterwards  rent  the  Prot- 
estant community  into  fragments, — but 
of  the  papal  doctrines  against  which  the 
main  struggle  of  the  reformers  had  been 
carried  on  from  the  very  first."  "If  any 
person  could  but  sit  down  to  the  perusal 
of  our  Articles,  in  utter  forgetfulness 
that  Europe  had  ever  been  seriously  agi. 
tated  by  the  Calvinistic  dispute,  and  with 
nothing  in  his  mind  but  the  controversy 
between  Reformed  Churches  and  the 
Church  of  Rome,  he  would  then  clearly 
perceive  that  those  Articles  were  con- 
structed for  the  most  part  on  the  Luther- 
an system  and  principally  as  a  rampart 
against  the  almost  unchristian  theology 
of  the  schools."*    This  was  emphatically 

*  Le  Bas'  Life  of  Cranmer.  See  also  Lawrence's  Earn pton 
Lectures;  Blunt' s  Reformation  in  England. 


19 

the  case  as  respects  the  .doctrine  now 
under  consideration.  Thus  we  have  two 
very  important  auxiliaries,  in  case  of  any 
difficulty  in  understanding  the  precise 
meaning  of  our  standard  compositions  on 
this  subject.  The  writings  of  Luther 
and  his  associates,  especially  of  Melanc- 
thon,  together  with  the  Augsburgh  Con- 
fession, which  the  latter  composed,  from 
materials  prepared  by  Luther,  are  one  of 
them.  The  doctrines  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  on  the  subject  of  Justification, 
are  another,  and  not  the  least  to  be  relied 
on.  From  the  first,  we  may  draw  some 
collateral  aid  in  this  discourse  ;  the  latter 
we  now  proceed  to  employ. 

What  then  was  that  doctrine  of  Ro- ' 
manism,  on  Justification,  against  which 
our  Church  protested?  In  the  authentic 
summary  of  the  decrees  of  the  Council 
of  Trent,  it  is  declared  that  we  are  jus- 
tified, not  by  a  Righteousness  accounted 
or  imputed  to  us,  and  which  otherwise 
would  not  be  ours ;  but  by  a  Righteous- 
ness,   "inherent   in    us;"  and  because 


20 

in/ierent,  a  righteousness  which  is  dis- 
tinctly called,  by  the  Council,  "our  own 
proper  Righteousness"  and  with  the  works 
of  which,  the  justified  "can  satisfy  the 
divine  law"  and  "truly  merit  the  attain- 
ment of  eternal  life"  But  this  inherent 
righteousness,  though  thus  "our  own 
proper  righteousness  "  "is  not  so  determin- 
ed to  be  our  own,  as  if  it  were  from  our- 
selves," but  is  also  "the  Righteousness 
of  God,  because  it  is  infused  into  us 
of  God>  through  the  Merit  of  Christ""* 

Thus  "our  own  proper  Righteousness" 
inwrought  and  inherent  in  us,  is  the  mer- 
itorious ground  of  our  Justification  before 
God,  according  to  the  Church  of  Rome. 
It  is  wrought  in  us  indeed  by  God,  and 
in  that  sense  is  not  our's,  but  His.  But 
quite  as  much  was  the  righteousness  of 
Adam,  before  he  fell,  wrought  in  him 
of  God.  Nevertheless,  had  Adam  con- 
tinued unfallen,  he  would  have  been  jus- 
tified in  the  strictest  sense,  by  works,  by 
his  own  merits  and  righteousness.      To 

•  Concil.  Trident,  bpss.  vi.  c.  16. 


21 

speak  therefore  of  "our  own  proper 
righteousness"  as  being  God's,  because 
He  made  it,  does  not  in  the  least  pro- 
tect the  Church  of  Rome  from  the  charge 
of  maintaining  that  our  own  righteous- 
ness or  merit  is,  in  the  strictest  sense, 
the  efficient  cause  of  our  Justification 
before  God.*  Hence  the  great  dividing 
line  between  Protestants  and  Romanists, 
on  this  subject,  is  thus  stated  by  Bishop 
Hall:  "  The  Papists  make  this  inherent 
righteousness  the  cause  of  our  Justifica- 
tion ;  the  Protestants,  the  effect  thereof. 
The  Protestants  require  it  as  a  compan- 
ion, the  Papists,  as  the  parent  of  Justi- 
fication.'^ To  the  same  purpose  speaks 
Archbishop  Usher:  "The  question  be- 
tween us  and  Rome  is  not  whether  we  are 
justified  by  faith,  but  whether  we  are 
justified  at  all.  There  are  two  graces; 
righteousness  imputed,  which  implies  for- 
giveness of  sins  ;  and  righteousness  inhe- 
rent, which  is  the  grace  of  sanctification 

•  For  further  evidence  sec  citations  in  Usher's  Answer  to 
a  Jesuit,  c.  xii. 
t  Works,  8  vo.  ix.  p.  46-7. 


22 

begun.  They  utterly  deny  that  there  is 
any  righteousness,  but  righteousness  in- 
herent. They  say  forgiveness  of  sins  is 
nothing  but  sanctih*  cation.  A  new  doc- 
trine, never  heard  of  in  the  Church  of 
God  till  these  last  days,  till  the  spawn 
of  the  Jesuits  devised  it."*  Let  us  hear 
the  judicious  Hooker  on  this  head. — 
"Wherein  (he  says)  do  we  disagree?" 
[with  Romanists.]  "  We  disagree  about 
the  nature  and  essence  of  the  medicine 
whereby  Christ  cureth  our  disease ;  about 
the  manner  of  applying  it;  about  the 
number  and  power  of  means  which  God 
requireth  in  us  for  the  effectual  applying 
thereof  to  our  souls'  comfort.  When 
they  are  required  to  shew  what  the  right- 
eousness is  whereby  a  Christian  man  is. 
justified,  they  answer  that  it  is  a  divine 
spiritual  quality ;  which  is  termed  Grace. 
This  they  will  have  to  be  applied  by  infu- 
sion; that  as  the  body  is  warm  by  the 
heat  which  is  in  the  body,  so  the  soul 
might  be  righteous  by  inherent  Grace ; 

*  Usher's  Sesmons  oa  Justification* 


23 

which  Grace  they  make  capable  of  in- 
crease, that  as  the  body  may  be  made 
more  and  more  warm,  so  the  soul,  more 
and  more  justified,  according  as  Grace 
should  be  augmented ;  the  augmentation 
whereof  is  merited  by  good  works,  as 
good  works  are  made  meritorious  by  it. 
Wherefore  the  first  receipt  of  Grace,  in 
their  divinity,  is  the  first  Justification; 
the  increase  thereof,  the  second  Justifica- 
tion. If  they  work  more  and  more, 
Grace  doth  more  increase,  and  they  are 
more  and  more  justified."  This  is  Hook- 
er's account  of  what  he  calls  "  the  mys- 
tery of  the  man  of  si?i"  and  "Babylon ;" 
and  which,  he  prays,  may  fall  before 
God's  truth,  "as  Dag  on  before  the  Ark."* 
This  it  was  which,  in  the  great  revolt  of 
the  16th  century,  against  the  usurpations 
of  Popery,  combined  the  whole  Protest- 
ant host  in  one  array  of  indignant  oppo- 
sition. "  This  (says  Usher)  is  that 
doctrine  of  merits,  which  from  our  very 
hearts  we  detest  and  abhor,   as  utterly 

*  Discourse  of  Justification,  §  v. 


24 

repugnant  to  the  truth  of  God  and  the 
common  sense  of  all  true-hearted  christ- 
ians."* This  was  the  head  of  Antichrist 
against  which  the  Articles  and  Homilies 
of  the  Reformed  Church  of  England  so 
earnestly  levelled  their  solemn  protests, 
and  repeated  declarations ;  this  explains 
their  emphatic  earnestness  whenever  the 
subject  of  human  merit  or  of  the  right- 
eousness of  God,  by  faith,  occurs,  and  is 
to  be  borne  prominently  in  mind,  by  all 
who  would  take  the  full  force  of  our 
doctrinal  standards  on  the  subject  before 
us.  Here  it  is  well  to  observe,  distinct- 
ly, that  what  aroused  the  solemn  protest 
of  the  reformed  churches  of  Europe,  was 
not  that  the  Church  of  Rome,  in  her 
doctrine  of  justification,  had  gone  so  far 
as  professedly  to  renounce  all  reliance  upon 
the  merits  of  Christ,  and  substitute  the 
inherent  righteousness  and  merits  of  the 
sinner,  without  a  pretence  of  any  thing 
better.  This  furthest  reach  of  heresy 
she   did  not  venture.      The   merits   of 

*  Answer  to  a  Jesuit,  c.  vil 


25 

Christ  and  the  office  of  faith  were  pro- 
fessedly retained.  And  while  she  did 
declare  that  "the  righteous  can  satisfy  the 
divine  law  by  their  own  works ;  and  may 
truly  merit  the  attainment  of  eternal  life  " 
and  that  "our  oivn  proper  Righteousness, 
inherent  in  us,  is  that  for  which  we  are 
justified"  she  took  care  to  qualify  her 
language  by  saying  that  the  works  by 
which  the  righteous  satisfy  the  divine 
law  "  are  performed in  God"  that  our  in- 
herent and  justifying  righteousness,  "is 
the  Righteousness  of  God,  because  infused 
into  us  by  God,  through  the  merit  of 
Christ;"  and  that  it  should  be  "far  from 
a  christian  that  he  should  either  trust  or 
glory  in  himself  and  not  in  the  Lord ; 
whose  goodness  to  all  men  is  so  great, 
that  what  are  truly  His  gifts,  he  willeth 
to  be  estimated  as  their  merits."* 

Here  indeed  were  specious  words,  for 
the  deceiving  of  the  unwary ;  but  regar- 
ded by  the  Reformers  as  a  mere  drapery 

*  Trident,  sess.  vl,  c  16,  p.  54. 


26 

of  pious  form  cast  over  a  foul  body,  to 
hide  its  more  odious  deformities.  It  was 
the  single  pretence  of  the  sinner's  own 
merits  or  righteousness,  entering  into  the 
justification  of  his  soul  before  God,  that 
kindled  their  united  and  stern  hostility. 
To  tell  them  that  only  a  part  of  justifica- 
tion was  assigned  to  the  sinner's  own 
merit,  and  the  rest  to  Christ,  was  of  no 
avail  to  turn  the  edge  of  their  remon- 
strance. It  was  enough  that  human  mer- 
it, in  any  degree,  however  obtained,  was 
permitted  to  come  into  the  least  connec- 
tion with  justification.  "To  say  that  a 
man  *  for  his  meritorious  works  receiveth, 
through  God's  grace,  the  bliss  of  ever- 
lasting happiness,'  is  to  speak  flat  contra- 
rieties, and  to  conjoin  those  things  that 
cannot  possibly  be  coupled  together.  For 
that  conclusion  of  Bernard  is  most  cer- 
tain: '  There  is  no  place  for  grace  to  en- 
ter, where  merit  hath  taken  possession,' 
because  it  is  founded  upon  the  Apostle's 
determination  :  '  If  it  be  of  grace,  it  is  no 


27 

more  of  works  ;  else  were  grace  no  more 
grace?  "#  Such  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
Reformation  every  where.  The  professed 
union  of  the  merit  of  man  with  that  of 
Christ;  this  pretended  sewing  of  the  new 
garment  of  the  Saviour's  righteousness  to 
the  old  polluted  thing  of  the  sinner's  own, 
they  unitedly  regarded  as  a  virtual  rejec- 
tion of  all  the  saving  benefits  of  the  Sav- 
iour's love,  and  a  perfect  exclusion  of 
grace  from  the  way  of  salvation.  In  their 
view,  it  was  a  direct  and  sacrilegious  re- 
versing of  the  method  of  St.  Paul.  He 
said  "  not  having  on  mine  own  righteous- 
?iess,  but  that  which  is  through  the  faith 
of  Christ,  the  righteousness  which  is  of 
God,  through  faith"  The  Church  of 
Rome  said,  on  the  contrary,  not  having 
on  the  righteousness  which  is  through  the 
faith  of  Christy  but  that  which  is  "our 
own  proper  righteousness,"  inherent  in 
us,  by  which  we  truly  merit  eternal  life, 
and  which  is  the  righteousness  of  God, 
only  because  it  is  wrought  in  us  by  God. 

•  Usher's  Answer  to  a  Jesuit,  c.  xii.,  p.  472. 


28 

Thus  was  "the  cross  of  Christ  of  none 
effect."  For  says  Hooker  to  this  very 
point,  "whether  they  speak  of  the  first 
or  second  Justification,  they  make  the 
essence  to  be  of  a  divine  quality  inherent; 
they  make  it  righteousness  which  is  in  us. 
If  it  be  in  us,  then  it  is  ours,  as  our 
souls  are  ours,  though  we  have  them  from 
God  and  can  hold  them  no  longer  than 
pleaseth  him ;  for  if  he  withdraw  the 
breath  of  our  nostrils  we  fall  to  dust,  but 
the  righteousness  wherein  we  must  be 
found  if  we  will  be  justified,  is  not  our 
own  ;  therefore  we  cannot  be  justified  by 
any  inherent  quality."" 

And  here,  let  it  be  well  observed,  that 
this  doctrine  of  Justification  by  inherent 
righteousness,  and  of  Justification  in- 
creased by  the  good  works  proceeding 
therefrom,  and  increasing  more  and  more 
as  good  works  increase  ;  this  was  regard- 
ed, not  as  only  a  part  of  Popery ;  as  one 
of  the  numerous  deformities  of  that  sys- 
tem, which  our  Church  does  not  scruple 

•  Discourse  of  Justincation,  $vi. 


29 

to  treat  with  the  name  of  Antichrist  ;*■ 
not  a  mere  companion  of  her  purgatory, 
and  her  indulgences,  and  her  image- 
worship,  and  such  like  ;  but  by  the  great 
lights  of  the  Protestant  world  in  the  days 
of  the  Reformation,  it  was  considered  as 
the  great  sin,  the  parent  sin,  the  head 
and  heart  of  Antichrist,  out  of  which  all 
her  unholy  desires  and  bad  counsels  and 
unjust  works  did  proceed.  Thus,  in  the 
sight  of  Luther,  the  doctrine  of  Justifi- 
cation was  the  one  great  point  to  be  made 
for  Reformation  of  the  Church  from  the 
corruptions  of  Romanism:  "the  Article 
by  which  a  Church  must  stand  or  fall  "i 
Calvin  maintained  "  that  if  this  one  head 
might  be  yielded  safe  and  entire,  it  would 
not  pay  the  cost  to  make  any  great  quar- 
rel about  other  matters  in  controversy  with 
Rome."t  Our  own  Homily,  on  this  sub- 
ject, is  of  the  same  mind  as  to  the  prime 
offence  of  that  Church,  declaring  that 

*  Hornily  of  Good  Works,  Part  iii. 

t  See  Luther's  extraordinary  assertion  of  this  Doctrine, 
in  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner'a  Church  History,  voL  1, 
p.  9?. 

tBp.  Hall's  Polemical  Works,  8vo.,  p.  44-5. 


30 

to  be  "  the  greatest  arrogancy  and  pre- 
sumption of  man  that  Antichrist  could 
set  up  against  God,  to  affirm  that  a  man 
might  by  his  own  works  take  away  and 
purge  his  own  sins,  and  so  justify  him- 
self."* And  in  proof  of  all  this,  Hooker 
gives  us  the  legitimate  pedigree  of  this 
"  mother  of  abominations,"  showing  how 
the  various  generations,  in  the  house  and 
lineage  of  Romish  corruptions,  have  all 
their  parentage  here,  and  without  this 
would  never  have  been  born.  He  begins 
with  the  two  Justifications  of  Popish  di- 
vinity—  the  first,  taking  place  on  the 
first  infusion  of  inherent  righteousness ; 
the  second,  on  the  increase  thereof  in 
good  works.  Then  he  says  that,  as  this 
Justification  may  be  increased  by  good 
works,  diminished  by  venial  sins,  lost  by 
mortal  sins,  so  that  it  is  needful  in  one 
case  to  repair  it,  in  the  other  to  recover 
it ;  "  the  infusion  of  grace  hath  her  sun- 
dry after-meals  ;  for  the  which  cause  they 
make  many  ways  to  apply  the  infusion  of 

*  Homily  on  Salvation,  Part  ii. 


Si 

grace.  It  is  applied  to  infants  through 
Baptism,  without  either  Faith  or  Works. 
It  is  applied  to  infidels  and  wicked  men 
in  the  first  Justification,  through  Baptism 
without  works,  yet  not  without  faith  ;  and 
it  taketh  away  both  sins  actual  and  origi- 
nal  together,  with  all  whatsoever  punish- 
ment temporal  or  eternal,  thereby  deser- 
ved. To  such  as  diminish  it  by  venial 
sins,  it  is  applied  by  Holy  Water,  Ave 
Marias,  Crossings,  Papal  Salutations,  and 
such  like,  which  serve  for  reparations  of 
grace  decayed.  To  such  as  have  lost  it, 
through  mortal  sin,  it  is  applied  by  the 
sacrament,  as  they  term  it,  of  Penance, 
which  sacrament  hath  force  to  confer 
grace  anew,"  yet  it  only  changes  the  pun- 
ishment of  sin  from  eternal  to  temporal 
here  in  this  life,  if  there  be  time  ;  but  if 
not,  to  temporal  punishment  hereafter, 
"except  it  be  lightened  by  Masses,  Works 
of  Charity,  Pilgrimages,  Fasts  and  such 
like,  or  else  shortened  by  pardon  of  term, 
or  by  plenary  pardon  quite  removed  and 
taken  away.     This  is  the  mystery  of  the 


32 

Man  of  Sin.  This  maze  the  Church  of 
Rome  doth  cause  her  followers  to  tread, 
when  they  ask  her  the  way  to  Justifi ca- 
tion.'5* This,  we  add,  is  the  Babel  of 
wood,  hay  and  stubble,  whose  top  reach- 
es unto  heaven,  and  invokes  the  anger  of 
God  against  the  builders  who  have  so  set 
at  nought  "the  head-stone  of  the  corner," 
and  despised  "  the  foundation  of  the 
Apostles  and  Prophets." 

But  stronger  still  is  the  author  of  our 
Homily  and  Article  on  Justification.  No 
where  does  Archbishop  Cranmer  exclaim 
with  such  indignation  against  Popery  as 
when  he  remembers  her  doctrine  of  hu- 
man merit.  Hear  his  solemn  condemna- 
tion! "O  heinous  blasphemy  and  most 
detestable  inj  ury  against  Christ !  O  wick- 
ed abomination  in  the  temple  of  God  ! 
O  pride  intolerable  of  Antichrist,  and 
most  manifest  token  of  the  son  of  perdi- 
tion, extolling  himself  above  God,  and 
with  Lucifer,  exalting  his  seat  and  power 
above  the  throne  of  God !     For  he  that 

*  Discourse  of  Justification,  $  v. 


33 

taketh  upon  him  to  supply  that  thing, 
which  he  pretendeth  to  be  imperfect  in 
Christ,  must  needs  make  himself  above 
Christ,  and  so  very  Antichrist.  For  what 
is  this  else,  but  to  be  against  Christ,  and 
to  bring  him  into  contempt?  As  one, 
that  either  for  lack  of  charity  would  not, 
or  for  lack  of  power,  could  not,  with  all 
his  blood-shedding  and  death,  clearly  de- 
liver his  faithful  and  give  them  remission 
of  sins ;  but  that  the  full  perfection  there- 
of must  be  at  the  hands  of  Antichrist  of 
Rome  and  his  ministers."* 

But,  my  Brethren,  it  is  not  for  any  at- 
tack upon  the  Church  of  Rome,  that  I 
have  recalled  these  things ;  but  because 
it  is  salutary  sometimes  to  renew  the  im- 
pressions they  are  so  calculated  to  make 
as  to  the  main  point  of  evangelical  truth 
for  which  our  fathers  of  the  Reformation 
contended,  and  thus  to  revive  our  sense 
of  responsibility  for  the  safe  keeping  of 
the  truth  which  they  were  made  the  hon- 

*  Cranmers  Book  on  the  Sacrament. 
3 


34 

oured  instruments  of  rescuing  from  the 
devices  of  Satan. 

What  the  human  heart  under  the  insti- 
gation of  the  great  Adversary  of  the 
Gospel,  has  once  done  against  the  truth, 
it  can  do  again.  Justification  by  inherent 
righteousness  or  human  merit,  was  no 
invention  of  Romanism.  It  is  indeed 
the  peculiar  distinction  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  to  be  the  first  and  only  one  of  the 
great  sections  of  Christendom  that  has 
embodied  into  formally  professed  declara- 
tions, the  fiction  of  such  a  righteousness ; 
and  especially,  that  has  pronounced  anath- 
ema upon  whoever  should  profess  the 
opposite;*  but  in  this  as  in  all  her  other 
corruptions  of  religion,  "the  spirit  of 
Romanism  is  substantially  the  spirit  of 
Human  Nature.     Its  errors  will  be  found 

*  "If  any  one  shall  say  that  men  are  justified,  either  by 
imputation  of  Christ's  righteousness  alone,  or  only  by  re- 
mission of  sins,  to  the  exclusion  of  grace  and  charity;  or 
that  the  grace  by  which  we  are  justified  is  the  favour  of  God 
alone  ;  let  him  be  accursed." 

"  If  any  one  shall  say  that  righteousness  received  (Justifi- 
cation) is  not  preserved  and  even  increased  before  God  by  good 
works;  but  that  these  works  are  only  fruits  and  signs  of  jus- 
tification, and  not  the  cause  of  increasing  it,  let  him  be  accur- 
sed."—  Concil.  Trident.,  sess.  vi.,  canons  xi.  and  xiiv. 


So 

to  be  the  natural  and  spontaneous  growth 
of  the  human  heart ;  not  so  much  the  ef- 
fect as  the  cause  of  the  Romish  system 
of  religion.  No  one  accordingly  can 
point  out  any  precise  period  at  which  this 
*  mystery  of  iniquity'  first  began,  or  spe- 
cify any  person  who  first  introduced  it; 
no  one  in  fact  ever  did  introduce  any  such 
system ;  the  corruptions  crept  in  one  by 
one,  and  gradually  changed  her  bridal 
purity  for  the  accumulated  defilements  of 
the  mother  of  harlots."*  They  grew  out 
of  that  universal  disposition  of  mankind 
which  leads  them  "to go  about  establishing 
their  own  righteousness ',  not  submitting 
themselves  to  l/ie  righteousness  of  God" 
Of  that  disposition,  Romanism  is  just 
the  direct  and  multiform  consequence ; 
the  most  systematic,  gigantic  and  avowed 
developement.t      What  we  behold  lull 

*  Archbishop  Whately,  on  the  Origin  of  Romish  Errors. 

t  What  a  confession  is  that  of  Bellarmine,  the  gieat  ex- 
positor and  champion  of  Romanism,  to  this  point !  "In 
answer  to  that  argument  of  ours,  that  after  we  are  acquit  of 
our  sins  at  this  bar,  and  that  only  for  Christ,  our  only  right 
ousness,  we  are  received  into  God's  favour,  &c,  and  then 
have  Heaven  by  way  of  inheritance;  he  answereth  directly — 
their  meaning  is  not  to  content  themselves  with  that  single 


36 

grbWn  and  developed  under  the  hideous 
proportions,    the  bold  frontlet,  and  the 
"' scarlet"  drapery  of  that  predicted  "man 
of  tin,  who  sitteth  as  God  in  the  temple 
of  God/'*  was  born  into  this  world  thou- 
sands of  years  before  Christianity  began. 
Justification  by  human  merits  was  the 
device  of  Satan  as  soon  as  enmity  was 
rirst  put  between  the  serpent  and  the  wo- 
man, and  his  seed  and  her  seed.     It  was 
'he  distinguishing  feature  of  the  sacrifice 
of  Cain,  and  in  him  led  to  the  first  per- 
secution and  the  first  martyrdom  for  the 
faith.     Under  the  form  of  the  righteous- 
ness of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  it  grew 
into  a  compacted  system  and  made  the 
commandment  of  God  of  none  effect,  by 
the  traditions  of  the  Elders,  under  the 
Jewish   dispensation,  just   as   under  the 
Christian,  it  has  done  the  same,  by  the 
traditions  of  the  Romanists,    "  teaching 
for    doctrines,    the    commandments    of 

■itle  of  inheritance;  but  they  mean  to  claim  it,  duplici  jure. 
That  is  not  only  titulo  luzreditatis,  but  jure  mcrcedis  too.  And 
be  gives  this  reason — For  that  it  is  more  for  their  honour,  to 
have  it  by  merit,  iMagis  honorificum  est,  habere  aliquid  ex 
rnerito.'  " — Bp.  Andrews'  Sermons,  fol.  p.  728. 

*  9  Thncc    ;;      9      A 


37 

men."*  It  was  this,  among  the  chris- 
tians of  Galatia,  against  which  St  Paul 
was  contending,  when  he  asked:  "Are 
ye  so  foolish?  Having  begun  in  the  Spir- 
it, are  ye  now  made  perfect  by  the  flesh  ?"t 
Always  has  it  been  a  chief  ruler  of  the 
darkness  of  this  world.  It  was  not  left 
to  be  confined  within  the  fold  of  Roman- 
ism, because  the  Reformed  branded 
it  with  their  solemn  Protest.  It  forsook 
not  the  hearts  of  the  people  when  it  was 
cancelled  from  the  standards  of  their 
faith.  It  abode  with  them  as  a  plague, 
because  they  carried  with  them  the  cor- 
ruption of  their  fallen  nature.  Under 
divers  shapes,  has  it  often  since  appeared 
in  Protestant  communities,  and  in  the 
writings  and  ministry  of  Protestant  di- 

*  A  famous  Jesuit  (Serarius)  writes  thus,  in  great  earnest: 
"  The  Pharisees  may  not  unfitly  be  compared  to  our  Catholics." 
On  which  singular  piece  of  truth-speaking,  the  good  old  Bp. 
Hall  says:  "  Some  men  speak  truth  ignorantly;  some  un- 
wittingly: Caiaphas  never  spake  truer  when  he  meant  it  not. 
One  egg  is  not  liker  to  another,  than  the  Tridentine  Fathers 
to  these  Pharisees  in  point  of  Traditions.  Some  Traditions 
(he  adds  with  a  wholesome  wisdom  u  necessary  for  these 
times")  must  have  place  in  every  church;  but  their  place: 
They  may  not  take  wall  of  Scripture:  substance  may  not. 
in  pur  valuation,  give  way  to  circumstance.  God  forbid  I" 
—  Works,  8vo.  vol.  v.,  p.  14. 

t  Gal.  iii.  3. 


38 

vines.  From  the  doctrine  of  Scripture, 
on  this  subject,  which  stands  as  a  sum- 
mit-level and  dividing  ridge,  like  the 
ancient  Church  in  the  mountains  of  Pied- 
mont,* between  the  opposite  declivities 
that  terminate  in  the  two  extremes  of 
Atheism  and  Popery,  the  currents  of  per- 
nicious error,  heading  in  the  same  vicini- 
ty, have  ever  been  flowing,  under  the 
guidance  of  adventitious  circumstances, 
in  opposite  directions;  some  towards  the 
German  Sea  of  Universal  Scepticism; 
others  towards  the  Italian  Gulph  of  Uni- 
versal Superstition  ;  both  meeting  at  last 
in  a  common  war  against  the  truth,  for 
the  shipwreck  of  the  Gospel.  Thus  it 
is,  that  according  as  circumstances  have 
operated  to  give  the  one  direction  or  the 
other  to  error,  the  doctrine  of  merit, 
whether  by  the  inherent  grace,  or  the  ex- 
ternalwork  of  righteousness,  has  appeared 
under  such,  opposite  forms ;  sometimes  in 

*  The  Church  of  Piedmont,  however  depressed,  never 
ceased  to  bear  witness  to  the  true  doctrine  of  Justification. 
"Connecting  itself  by  a  long  line  of  succession  with  the 
primitive  ages,  it  may  claim  the  high  and  extraordinary 
praise  of  not  being  a  Reformed  Church,  simply  because  it 
requiruL  not  reformation." — Fabcr's  Romanism,  app.,  2d  ed. 


39 

the  shape  of  a  dead  and  ice-bound  Ra- 
tionalism; at  other  times,  in  the  monas- 
tic garb  and  fervent  zeal  of  a  solemn 
Mysticism ;  now  proceeding  towards  the 
rejection  of  all  Mediation  and  Atone- 
ment, and  to  a  proud  dependence  on  its 
own  foundation  for  peace  with  God  ;  now 
tending  to  the  multiplication  of  atone- 
ments and  mediators,  in  voluntary  penan- 
ces and  additional  observances  and  prayers 
of  saints  ;  one  while  setting  at  nought  all 
external  things  in  the  worship  of  God, 
as  carnal  ordinances,  fit  only  for  the  in- 
fancy of  religion,  and  caring  for  nothing 
but  a  certain  mystic  indwelling  of  God, 
for  reconciliation ,  as  well  as  holiness;  at 
another  time,  rejecting  all  inward  and 
spiritual  grace,  as  enthusiasm,  and  rest- 
ing in  outward  forms  and  observances  as 
theiiilfilment  of  all  righteousness.  Now, 
as  ever,  among  all  classes  of  Christians, 
is  this  essential  spirit  of  Romanism — self- 
righteousness — the  popery  of  the  un- 
converted heart,  the  last  enemy  to  be 
vanquished  in  bringing  a  sinner  to  accept 


40 

the  grace  of  God  in  Christ;  the  last 
plague  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  true 
disciple,  and  hinder  his  progress  in  ho- 
liness. 

Brethren,  suppose  not  that  there  is 
not  very  much  of  the  operative  spirit  of 
popery  among  all  communities  and  under 
all  names  of  Protestants.  No  confessions 
of  faith ;  no  terms  of  communion  ;  no 
tests  of  discipleship,  can  fence  it  out. 
The  old  soil  of  its  birth  remains.  Satan 
can  cast  his  devices  over  all  our  barriers. 
What  if  we  go  not  to  auricular  confes- 
sion ;  nor  trust  in  a  Priest's  absolution ; 
nor  bow  down  to  graven  images ;  nor 
pray  to  angels  and  the  Virgin  and  all 
departed  saints  ;  nor  draw  upon  a  treas- 
ury of  the  superfluous  merits  of  the  faith- 
ful, committed  to  the  keys  of  the  successor 
of  St.  Peter,  for  the  supply  of  the  defi- 
ciencies of  the  living  and  the  dead  ?  All 
these  things  we  may  hate,  as  marks  of 
Antichrist.  Purgatory  and  Transubstan- 
tiation  and  Papal  Infallibility  and  Romish 
claims  of  exclusive  Catholicity  may  kin- 


41 

die  us  into  strong  aversion  at  the  bare 
naming  of  their  names.  But  can  there 
be  no  plague-spot  of  popery,  where  these 
are  rejected?  no  poisonous  fountain  till 
it  run  over  in  all  these  streams?  no  head 
and  heart  of  Anrichrist,  without  these 
its  limbs  ?  Yes,  the  very  soul  of  Popery 
— that  which  alone  hath  "  power  to  give 
life  unto  the  image  of  the  beast,"*  and 
which  alone  does  give  value  to  its  indul- 
gences, and  room  to  its  purgatory,  and 
need  to  its  sacrament  of  penance,  and 
motive  to  the  employment  of  its  number- 
less intercessors ;  that,  into  which  all  the 
rest  of  popery  has  struck  its  roots,  and 
without  which  it  could  not  possibly  have 
subsisted ;  —  inherent  righteousness  and 
human  merit  as  having  any  — the  least 
part  in  the  justification  of  a  sinner  before 
God; — this  maybe  in  us;  and  this  is  the 
soul  of  Popery;  and  however  alone  it 
should  be,  at  its  first  appearance  among 
us,  would  need  but  a  generation  or  two 
to  do  its  work,  and  you  should  see  it  dis- 

*  Rev.  xiii.  15. 


42 

playing  its  legitimate  offspring  under  all 
the  forms  of  a  manifest  Romanism  ;  the 
names,  perhaps,  new ;  the  shrines,  prot- 
estant ;  the  whole  externalism,  presented 
in  a  corrected  edition  ;  but  from  the  same 
cause,  the  same  substantial  effects  pro- 
ceeding: genuine  popery,  though  dis- 
guised, peradventure,  as  an  angel  of 
light.  The  grand  security,  under  God, 
of  any  Church,  against  corruptions  es- 
sentially the  same  as  those  of  Romanism, 
is  its  being  thoroughly  indoctrinated  and 
animated  with  the  blessed  truth  that  "we 
are  accounted  righteous  before  God,  only 
for  the  merit  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  by  faith,  and  not  for  our 
own  works  or  deservings"  Let  this  once 
be  substituted  for  the  doctrine  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  and  how  soon  would 
the  whole  "  maze  in  which  she  leads  her 
followers"  be  disentangled  1  the  whole 
Babel  confounded !  This  it  was  that  did 
the  glorious  work  in  the  sixteenth  centu- 
ry, forasmuch  as  it  spake  to  the  con- 
science, reached  the  heart,  gave  "liberty 


48 

to  the  captive  and  the  opening  of  the 
prison  doors  to  them  that  were  bound." 
The  same  work  must  be  done  wherever 
the  same  truth  is  received.  Therefore 
was  it  against  the  holders  of  this  doctrine 
that  the  persecutions  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury were  especially  aimed.  "It  cannot 
be  denied  (said  Melancthon)  that  we  are 
brought  into  trouble,  and  exposed  to  dan- 
ger, for  this  only  reason  :  that  we  believe 
the  favour  of  God  to  be  procured  for  us, 
not  by  our  observances,  but  for  the  sake  of 
Christ  alone."*  A  leader  in  the  Council 
of  Trent  spoke  the  truth  when  he  oppo- 
sed the  doctrine  of  imputed  righteous- 
ness, because  it  " abolished  the  punishment 
togetlier  with  the  guilt"  and  "left  no  place 
remaining  for  satisfaction  ;"t  in  other 
words,  it  left  no  purgatory  for  the  par- 
doned, nor  need  of  any  of  the  devices 
of  merit,  by  which  the  Church  of  Rome, 
"with  feigned  words"  makes  merchan- 
dize of  the  souls  of  men.X     No  wonder 

*  Ep.  i.  120. 

t  Fra.  Paolo's  Hist,  of  the  Council  of  Trent,  b.  2.  p.  200. 

*2  Pet.  ii.  3.    Rev,  xviii.  13. 


44 

then  that  there  should  be  such  opposition, 
for,  says  Luther,  "this  it  is  that  is  to 
crush  the  serpent's  head.  Satan  there- 
fore cannot  fail  to  direct  his  opposition 
against  it;"  "this  is  the  head  corner- 
stone which  supports,  nay  gives  existence 
and  life  to  the  Church  of  God ;  so  that 
without  it  the  Church  cannot  subsist  for 
an  hour."* 

Now,  my  Brethren,  it  is  because  I 
thoroughly  believe  in  the  unquenchable 
enmity  of  Satan  to  this  blessed  doctrine; 
and  that  it  is,  now  as  ever,  his  one  grand 
effort,  to  mine  under  its  base  and  insert 

*  Letter  to  Brentius  in  Scott's  Continuation  of  Milner. 
Bp.  Warburton  does  not  make  the  denial  of  transubstantia- 
tion,  papal  supremacy,  &c.  &c.  to  have  been  the  foundation 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation.  Speaking  of  the  doctrine 
of  the  redemption  of  mankind  by  Christ,  he  says,  this,  to- 
gether with  its  consequent  doctrine  of  Justification  by  Faith 
alone,  were  the  great  gospel  principles  on  which  Protest- 
antism was  founded.-- -On  the  Doctrine  of  Grace. 

"The  fruitful  parent  (says  Faber)  ot  Expiatory  Penance 
Expiatory  Good  Deeds,  Purgatory,  Indulgences  and  Super 
erogation,  is  the  vain  phantasy,  so  congenial  to  our  proud 
though  fallen  nature;  — the  phantasy  of  Meritorious  Satis 
faction.  This  deeply  rooted  and  widely  pullulating  Heresy 
which  lies  at  the  bottom  of  all  false  schemes  of  religion 
whether  Pagan  or  Papal  or  Mahommedan  or  Socinian,  is 
cherished  in  all  its  baneful  influence  by  the  Church  of 
Rome." — "  The  doctrine  of  Merit  and  the  doctrine  of  Du- 
ty, lie  at  the  very  root  of  the  utterly  irreconcilable  differen- 
ces between  the  lapsed  Church  of  Rome  and  the  Reformed 
Church  o?  England."— Fabefs  Romanism,  2d  ed.  app. 


45 

in  its  stead  some  plausible  pretence  of 
man's  righteousness,  however  disguised 
under   the   name  of   the   indwelling   of 
God's;  having  for  the  subject  of  his  de- 
vices the  same  corrupt  nature  and  deceit- 
ful heart  as  when  he  first  succeeded  in 
thus  subverting  the  foundations  of  the 
Gospel ;  it  is  because  as  a  wise  master- 
builder  of  anti-christiau  error,  he  is  too 
wary  not  to  put  forth  his  plans  under  the 
staunchest  claims  of  primitive  purity  and 
with  the  strongest   opposition  to  man) 
of  the  peculiar  and  most  glaring  heresies 
of  Rome,  in  order  that  the  truth  may 
slide   away  imperceptibly  for  want  of  a 
watchful  discrimination  and  of  a  faithful 
resistance  of  the  beginnings  of  error,  and 
that  a  doctrine  of  inherent  righteousness 
for  justification   may,  by  many  covered 
approaches  and  glossed  expressions,  effect 
an  unseen  lodgment  in  its  place,  a  lodg- 
ment which  may  be  the  more  dangerous, 
because  it  may  be  attended  with  much 
that  is  true  and  lovely  and  of  good  report, 
as  well   in   the   personal   character   and 


learning  of  its  special,  though  unwary, 
advocates,  as  in  the  usefulness  of  some 
of  their  measures ;  it  is  because  there  is 
so  much  in  the  peculiarities  of  these 
times  to  expose  the  Protestant  Church  to 
a  disintegration  of  its  most  precious  doc- 
trines ;  a  special  fondness,  on  the  one 
hand,  for  the  practical,  as  distinguished 
from  the  doctrinal,  accompanied  Avith  a 
disproportionate  tendency  to  the  active, 
as  distinguished  from  the  contemplative, 
in  religion;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  arising  a  strong  re-action  which, 
in  some  parts,  is  in  danger  of  returning 
to  the  contemplative  and  the  doctrinal, 
too  much,  by  the  way  of  the  mystical ; 
and  thus  of  spreading  a  cloud,  in  which 
error  may  find  a  covert,  and  truth,  con- 
fusion:*— these  are  some  of  the  consid- 
erations, my  Brethren,  which  now  weigh 
upon  my  mind  and  induce  me  to  believe 
that  the  course  of  remark  with  which  the 

*  In  a  late  number  of  the  British  Critic,  we  read  that  "in 
the  present  day,  mistiness  [qu.  mysticism]  is  the  mother  of 
wisdom.  You  may  hold  the  most  fatal  errors  or  the  most 
utter  extravagancies,  if  you  hold  them  in  a  confused  and 
misty  way." 


47 

rest  of  this  address  will  be  occupied,  may 
not  be  unseasonable,  or  without  its 
benefits. 

That  I  may  stir  up  your  minds  by  way 
of  remembrance,  in  regard  to  those  main 
points  of  the  doctrine  of  Justification, 
on  which  a  minister  of  Christ  should 
study  to  be  especially  clear  in  his  state- 
ments, strong  in  his  proofs,  and  watch- 
ful against  ignorances  and  perversions,  I 
will  occupy  the  remainder  of  this  dis- 
course in  the  setting  forth  of  those  partic- 
ulars, as  far  as  time  will  allow,  and  in 
exhibiting  the  doctrine  of  the  Scriptures 
and  of  our  Church  in  regard  to  them. 

All-important,  to  the  whole  subject,  is 
a  distinct  idea  of  the  meaning  and  use  of 
the  term  Justification.  With  this, 
therefore,  let  us  begin. 

When  the  Apostle  declares  that  "by 
faith  a  man  is  justified,"  in  what  sense 
is  that  justification  to  be  understood? 
The  question  is  easily  answered,  but  the 
whole  subject  materially  depends  on  it. 


48 

Justification,  in  its  most  comprehen- 
sive sense,  imports  the  making  of  a  man 
just  or  righteous. 

This  must  be  done  in  one  of  two  ways. 
It  must  be  either  by  a  personal  change  in 
a  man's  moral  nature,  or  by  a  relative 
change  in  his  state,  as  regards  the  sen- 
tence of  the  law  of  God.  The  former 
justification  is  opposed  to  unholiness  ;  the 
latter  to  condemnation ;  the  one  takes 
away  the  indwelling  of  moral  pollution  ; 
the  other,  the  imputation  of  judicial  guilt. 
If  we  understand  Justification,  in  the 
first  sense,  as  expressing  the  making  a 
man  righteous,  "by  an  infusion  of  right- 
eousness" as  Romanism  expresses  it,  we 
make  it  identical  with  Sanctification,  and 
therefore,  it  is  as  gradual  as  the  progress 
of  personal  holiness,  and  never  complete 
till  we  are  perfected  in  heaven.  But  how 
will  that  sense  appear  in  such  a  passage 
as  that  wherein  it  is  said  :  "  Hethat  jus- 
tifieth  the  wicked  and  he  that  condemneth 
the  just,  even  they  both  are  an  abomination 


49 

to  the  Lord.*  Not  to  speak  of  the  evi- 
dent opposition  in  this  passage  between 
the  words  justify  and  condemn,  implying 
in  both  a  judicial  and  not  a  moral  change ; 
how  could  it  be  an  abomination  to  the 
Lord  to  justify  the  wicked,  by  making 
him  personally  holy,  by  an  infusion  of 
personal  righteousness.  But  if  we  take 
Justification  in  the  latter  sense,  as  indica- 
ting a  relative  change,  it  is  then  a  term  of 
law,  understood  judicially,  and  expresses 
the  act  of  God,  in  his  character  of  Judge, 
deciding  the  case  of  one  accused  before 
him,  and  instead  of  condemning,  acquit- 
ting him;  instead  of  holding  him  guilty, 
accounting  him  righteous,  so  that  he  be- 
comes the  man  of  whom  David  speaks — 
the  happy  man  "unto  whom  the  Lord 
imputeth  no  sin" 

In  relation  to  the  former  sense,  there 
is  not  a  place  in  Scripture  wherein  the 
word  Justify,  in  any  of  its  forms,  is  used, 
in  reference  to  remission  of  sins,  that  can 
be  so  interpreted.     As  to  the  latter,  the 

*  Prov.  xvii ;  lf>. 


50 

judicial  sense,  there  are  passages,  very 
many,  in  which  it  can  with  no  appearance 
of  reason,  be  understood  in  any  other.* 
This  sense  is  specially  manifest  where 
Justification  is  spoken  of  as  the  opposite 
of  condemnation.  Take  Rom.  v;  18. 
"As  by  the  offence  of  one,  judgment 
came  upon  all  men  to  condemnation ; 
even  so  by  the  righteousness  of  one,  the 
free  gift  came  upon  all  men  unto  justifi- 
cation of  life."  Here,  most  evidently, 
Justification  imports  a  judicial  clearing 
from  the  imputation  of  guilt,  in  the  pre- 
cise sense  and  degree  in  which  condemna- 
tion imports  a  judicial  fastening  of  the 
imputation  of  guilt.  The  same  appears 
in  Rom.  viii;  23.  "  Wlio  shall  lay  any 
thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ?  It  is 
God  that  justifieth  ;  who  is  he  that  con- 
demneth?"  Here  is  the  idea  of  a  court, 
a  tribunal,  a  person  arraigned ;  the  accu- 
ser is  called;  the  whole  is  judicial;  and 
if  by  the  condemnation,   spoken  of,  we 

*  See  Job  ix ;   2,  3.     Ps.  cxliii ;  2,     Ro*n,iii;  8.     Acts 
siii;  39. 


51 

could  understand  an  act  of  the  Judge 
making  the  accused  guilty  by  the  infu- 
sion of  unrighteousness ;  then  also  by  the 
Justification,  spoken  of,  we  might  under- 
stand an  act  of  the  Judge  making  the 
accused  just  by  an  infusion  of  righteous- 
ness ;  but  if  this  interpretation  would  be 
absurd  in  the  former  case,  so  must  it  be 
in  the  latter,  for  the  two  must  evidently 
be  interpreted  alike.* 

But  it  is  not  necessary  to  go  very  par- 
ticularly into  the  proof  of  the  judicial 
sense  of  the  word  Justification  in  the 
Scriptures. t  The  great  matter  is  to  keep 
clear  the  essential  difference  between 
Justification  and  Sanctification ;  between 
the  former,  as  opposed  to  the  imputation 

*  For  other  examples  of  the  opposition  of  Justification 
and  Condemnation  see  Mat.  xii;  37;  Deut.  xxv;  1:  1  Kings, 
viii ;  32  :  2  Chron.  vi ;  2  and  3.  That  this  is  the  sense  of 
the  word  in  the  Scriptures,  especially  in  the  N.  T.  is  so  ob- 
vious (says  Bp.  Bull)  that  he  must  be  almost  blind  who  does 
not  perceive  it:  ^potne  coccus  est  qui  non  videat."  For  the 
opinion  of  this  learned  writer  at  large,  see  his  Harmonia 
Apostolica,  Dissert.  1.  c.  1. 

i  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that,  even  in  the  Council  of 
Trent,  the  judicial  sense  of  Justification,  in  opposition  to  the 
"effective,"  was  maintained  by  some  leading  characters.  In 
an  argument  on  this  subject,  in  which  it  was  maintained  that 
whenever  St.  Paul  speaks  of  justification  he  is  to  be  under- 
stood "in  an  effective  sense,"  i.  e.  as  making,  instead  of 
"accounting"  a  man  righteous,  a  great  dispute  arose  be- 


52 

of  guilt,  and  the  latter,  to  the  indwelling 
of  unholiness;  the  former  as  a  restora- 
tion to  favour ;  the  latter,  to  purity ;  this, 
as  the  act  of  God  within  us,  changing 
our  moral  character ;  the  other,  as  the  act 
of  God  ivithout  us,  changing  our  relative 
state;  blessings  inseparable  indeed,  but 
essentially  distinct.  '  '  There  be  two  kinds 
of  Christian  righteousness;  (says  Hook- 
ker)  the  one  without  us  which  we  have 
by  imputation;  the  other  in  us,  which 
consisteth  of  Faith,  Hope,  Charity  and 
other  Christian  virtues — God  giveth  us 
both  the  one  justice  and  the  other;  the 
one  by  accepting  us  for  righteous  in 
Christ;  the  other  by  working  Christian 
righteousness  in  us." 

The  evidence  of  St.  Paul's  Epistles,  as 
to  the  use  of  the  word  Justify,  is  thus 
expressed  by  Bishop  Barrow.  "  The 
purport  of  the  reasoning,  so  often  used, 

tween  Soto  and  Marinarus,  a  Carmelite  ;  the  latter  main- 
taining that  such  an  interpretation  of  St.  Paul  was  "mani- 
festly against  the  text,  which  maketh  a  judicial  process,  and 
saith  that  none  can  accuse  or  condemn  God's  elect,  because 
God  doth  justify  them:  where  the  judicial  words,  to  accuse 
and  condemn,  do  shew  that  the  word  Justify,  is  judicial 
also."     F.  Paolo's  Hist.  6.  2.  p.  199. 


53 

(by  St.  Paul)  doth  imply  that  a  man's; 
justification  signifieth  his  being  accepted 
or  approved  as  just,  standing  rectus  in 
curia-,  being  in  God's  esteem,  and  by 
his  sentence,  absolved  from  guilt  and 
punishment;"  "St.  Paul  expresseth  jus- 
tification as  an  act  of  judgment  performed 
by  God  whereby  he  declareth  his  own 
righteousness  or  justice;"  Rom  iii;  24, 
5,  6.  "It  cannot  be  understood  for  a 
constituting  man  intrinsically  righteous, 
or  infusing  worthy  qualities  into  him; 
but  rather  for  an  act  of  God  terminated 
upon  a  man  as  altogether  unworthy  of 
God's  love,  as  impious,  as  an  enemy,  as 
a  pure  object  of  mercy ;"  Rom.  iv:  5;  v^ 
10.  "When  it  is  said  again  and  again, 
that  faith  is  imputed  for  righteousness,  it 
is  plain  enough  that  no  other  thing  in 
man  was  required  thereto ;  to  say  that  he 
is  thereby  sanctified,  or  hath  gracious 
habits  infused,  is  uncouth  and  arbitrari- 
ous."  "Justification  and  condemnation 
being  both  of  them  the  acts  of  God  and 
it  being  plain  that  God  condemning  doth 


54 


not  infuse  any  inherent  unrighteousness 
into  man,  neither  doth  He  justifying ', 
formally  put  any  inherent  righteousness 
into  him."*  In  Bishop  Beveridge,  of  most 
venerable  memory,  we  thus  read:  "It  is 
evident  that  the  Holy  Ghost  useth  this 
word  Justification  to  signify  a  man's 
being  accounted,  or  declared,  not  guilty 
of  the  faults  he  is  charged  with,  but  in 
that  respect  a  just  and  righteous  person, 
and  that  too  before  some  Judge,  who  in 
our  case  is  the  supreme  Judge  of  the 
world.  And  this  is  plainly  the  sense 
wherein  our  Church  also  useth  the  word 
in  her  articles;  for  the  title  of  the  Xlth 
Article  is  thus :  '  Of  the  Justification  of 
Man ; '  but  the  Article  itself  begins 
thus:  'We  are  accounted  righteous  be- 
fore God,'  &c. — which  clearly  shows  that 
in  her  sense,  to  be  justified  is  the  same 
with  being  accounted  righteous  before 
God ;  which  I  therefore  observe  that  you 
may  not  be  mistaken  in  the  sense  of  the 
word  as  it  is  used  by  the  Church  and  by 

*  Barrow  on  Justification. 


55 

the  Holy  Ghost  Himself  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  like  those  who  confound 
Justification  and  Sanctification  together, 
as  if  they  were  one  and  the  same  thing: 
although  the  Scriptures  plainly  distin- 
guish them;  Sanctification  being  God's 
act  in  us,  whereby  we  are  made  righteous 
in  ourselves;  but  Justification  is  God's 
act  in  Himself,  whereby  we  are  accounted 
righteous  by  him  and  shall  be  declared  so 
at  the  judgment  of  the  great  day."  * 

Such  then  being  the  judicial  or 
forensic  sense  in  which  man  is  said  to  be 
justified  before  God,  a  sense  so  essen- 
tially important  to  be  kept  distinctly  in 
mind,  that,  as  Bishop  Andrews  says, 
"we  shall  never  take  the  state  of  the 
question  aright  unless  we  consider  it  in 
this  view;"  t  and  since  a  judicial  process 
implies  a  laiv,  according  to  which  it  is 
conducted,  and  a  law  requires,  of  course, 
a  perfect  fulfilment  of  its  precepts,  in 
other  words,  a  perfect  righteousness,  be- 

*  Beveridge's  Sermons  No.  74. 

t  Sermons  (Justification)  fol.  725.  Bp.  Andrews  is  par- 
ticularly strong  in  support  of  the  forensic  nature  of  our  jus- 
tification. 


56 


fore  any  can  be  justified  by  sentence  of 
the  Judge ;  the  question  occurs,  by  what 
righteousness  is  a  sinner  to  be  justified 
before  God? 

Brethren  what  do  we  teach,  what  must 
we  teach  on  this  subject?  The  Law  of 
God  is  "holy,  just  and  good;"  it  is  as 
holy,  just  and  good  now,  as  in  the  be- 
ginning ;  requiring,  as  ever,  a  perfect  ful- 
filment: So  that,  as  St.  James  says,  "he 
that  offends  in  one  point  is  guilty  of  all" 
and  comes  under  the  whole  condemna- 
tion of  a  broken  law.  The  figment  of  a 
mitigated  law,  a  new  law,  called  the  gos- 
pel, requiring  less  than  the  perfect  obe- 
dience of  the  old,  and  reduced  into  a 
nearer  accommodation  to  our  infirmities, 
that  is  to  say,  to  our  corrupt  and  disobedi- 
ent Jiearts,  is  as  much  opposed  to  propriety 
of  terms,  as  to  scriptural  verity. 

The  change  wrought  by  the  transition 
of  man  from  under  the  covenant  of 
works,  to  that  of  grace,  is  not  a  change 
from  the  requirement  of  a  perfect  fulfil- 
ment of  the  law  for  justification,  to  that  of 


57 

an  imperfect;  for  now  as  ever  the  right* 
eousness  for  which  alone  we  can  be  ac- 
counted righteous,  must  be  perfect.  No- 
thing less,  in  a  judicial  sense ,  can  be  right- 
eousness. Inasmuch  as  we  are  account- 
ed sinners,  simply  because  we  have  trans- 
gressed the  law,  whether  it  be  only  once, 
or  a  thousand  times;  so  we  can  be  ac- 
counted righteous  only  when  we  may  be 
regarded  as  having  perfectly  kept  the 
law.  "Nothing  (says  Bishop  Hall)  can 
formally  make  us  just,  but  that  which  is 
perfect  in  itself.  How  can  it  give  what 
it  hath  not?"  "That  is,  jio  righteous- 
ness, (says  Bishop  Hopkins)  which  doth 
not  fully  answer  the  law  which  is  the 
rule  of  it;  for  the  least  defect  destroys 
its  nature  and  turns  it  into  unrighteous- 
ness. "  Now  the  change  wrought  by  the 
covenant  of  grace  changes  not  the  de- 
mand of  the  law  except  as  it  effects  a 
transition  from  the  requirement  of  a  per- 
sonal fulfilment,  for  justification,  to  that 
of  fulfilment  by  a  surety.  "The  obedi- 
ence to  the  Law  (says  Bishop  Reynolds) 


58 

is  not  removed,  but  the  disobedience  is 
pardoned  and  healed."  The  covenant 
of  works  demanded  a  personal  righteous- 
ness, without  spot  or  wrinkle.  The  cove- 
nant of  grace  provides  that  perfect  right- 
eousness in  the  person  of  a  representa- 
tive— "the  Lord  our  Righteousness ;"  so 
that  every  believer  is  "accepted  in  the 
beloved"  as  being  " complete  in  him,"  and 
"may  be  called,  (in  the  language  of  the 
Homily)  a  fulhller  of  the  Law."  * 

Now  there  are  but  two  conceivable 
classes  of  justifying  righteousness,  viz: 
Our  own  righteousness,  and  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ.  These  are  continually 
distinguished  in  the  Scriptures  and  set  in 
direct  and  irreconcilable  opposition  to 
each  other.  Is  one  called  "the  righteous- 
ness of  laivf"  the  other  is  "the  righteous- 
ness of  faith;"  i  is  the  one  called  by  St. 

*  The  above  view  is  evidently  taught  in  the  Homily  of 
Salvation,  not  only  in  the  passage  quoted,  but  also  where  it 
is  said  that  "in  our  justification,  there  is  not  only  God's 
mercy  and  grace,  but  also  his  justice,  which  the  Apostle  call- 
eth  the  justice  of  God  ;  and  itconsisteth  in  paying  our  ran- 
som and  fulfilling  of  the  law.  And  so  the  grace  of  God  doth 
not  shut  out  the  justice  of  God  in  our  justification  ;  but  only 
shutteth  out  the  justice  of  man,  that  is  to  say,  the  justice  of 
our  works."    PArt  1.    See.  Appendix  A.        t  Rom.  x  ;  5,  6. 


59 

Paul,  Our  "own  righteousness?"  the  other, 
he  calls  "the  righteousness  of  God"  *  Is 
one  described  as  "by  the  law?"  the  other 
is  "without tlie law" t  Is  one  "reckoned 
to  him  that  ivorketh?"  the  other  is  "to  him 
that  worketh  not"X  Is  the  one  "of 
debt?"  the  other  is  "of  grace"  §  Does 
the  one  give  man  "wliereof  to  glo?y"  be- 
cause it  is  "of  ivorks?"  the  other  "ex- 
cludes boasting"  because  it  is  "of  faith"  \\ 
Does  St.  Paul  "count  all  things  but  loss 
that  he  may  win  Christ  and  be  found  in 
him?"  He  has  no  hope  of  succeeding 
till  he  has  first  laid  aside  his  own  right- 
eousness as  worthless  and  put  on,  in  its 
stead,  "the  righteousness  which  is  by  the 
faith  of  Christ."  %  In  his  view,  these 
two  cannot  coalesce;  cannot  unite  into 
one  vesture;  they  are  essentially  incon- 
sistent in  the  office  of  justification;  so 
that  if  we  trust  in  the  one,  we  cannot 

*  Rom.  x  ;  3. 

t  Gal.  ii:  21;  and  Rom.  iii;  21. 

X  Rom.  iv;  4  and  5. 

§  Rom.  iv;  4  and  16. 

||  Rom.  iv;  2;  and  iii;  27. 

H  Phil,  iii;  9. 


60 


have  the  other;  if  we  "go  about  td 
establish  our  own  righteousness,"  it  im- 
plies that  we  have  not  submitted  to,  bui 
rejected  the  righteousness  of  God.  *  Our 
justification  must  be  either  of  grace  exclu- 
sively, or  of  works  exclusively.  It  can- 
riot  be  of  both,  "Not  of  works  lest  any 
man  should  boast"  t  "If  by  grace,  (says 
St  Paul)  then  it  is  no  more  of  works, 
otherwise  grace  is  no  more  grace.  But  if 
it  be  of  works  ^  then  it  is  no  more  grace ; 
otherwise  work  is  no  more  work."t  "It 
is  not  grace  any  way,  (says  Augustine) 
if  it  be  not  free  every  way." 

Now  between  one  or  the  other  of  these 
rival  hopes  must  every  sinner  choose. 
His  choice  of  one  is  necessarily  the  re- 
jection of  the  other. 

I  cannot  suppose,  my  Brethren,  that 
in  a  discourse  addressed  to  such  auditors, 
there  is  any  need  of  maintaining  that  the 
righteousness  of  Christ,  in  his  obedience 
and  death,  embraced  by  faith,  excluding 

*  Rom.  x;  3. 
t  Eph.  ii;  9. 
t  Rom.  xi;  6. 


61 

our  own  works  and  deservings  entirely, 
is  the  only  ground  of  a  sinner's  hope  of 
Justification  before  God.  But  for  a  min- 
ister to  know  this,  fully  to  believe  it,  and 
truly  to  preach  it,  is  one  thing;  it  is 
another  thing  to  preach  it  so  earnestly, 
so  clearly,  so  frequently,  with  such  dis- 
crimination, as  that,  in  spite  of  the  con- 
tinually opposing  ministry  of  self-right- 
eousness, by  all  that  is  corrupt  and  de- 
ceitful in  the  human  heart,  his  people 
shall  be  thoroughly  furnished  in  the 
knowledge,  and,  as  far  as  man  can  make 
them,  in  the  heart-felt  impression,  of  the 
utter  worthlessness  of  their  own  "works 
and  deservings,"  and  thus  armed  against 
"the  wiles  of  the  devil,"  by  whatever 
path  he  would  allure  their  trust  away 
from  an  exclusive  reliance  upon  the  ac- 
counted righteousness  of  Christ.  Plain 
is  the  doctrine;  but  like  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet,  it  must  run  through  all 
your  preaching.  It  is  one  of  those  first 
principles  of  the  doctrine  of  Christ, 
which  we  can  never  leave,  till  Satan  is 


62 

cast  down   and  death  swallowed  up  in 
victory.* 

I  cannot  refer  you  to  any  better  human 
example  as  to  Iww  to  set  forth  this  hum- 
bling doctrine  than  the  standards  of  our 
own  Church.  For  an  example  of  the 
spirit  of  self-abasement  and  renunciation 
before  God  to  which  you  should  strive  to 
bring  all  committed  to  your  charge,  study 
the  language  of  our  Liturgy,  especially 
the  deeply  penitential  language  of  the 
communion-office.  What  confessions  are 
there!  what  renunciations  of  all  trust  in 
our  own  righteousness!  what  exclusive 
looking  unto  Jesus!  But  apply  to  the 
Articles.  Read  the  eleventh— "  we  are 
accounted  righteous  before  God  only  for 

*  "  The  notion  of  human  righteousness,  (says  Luther)  or 
that  of  works,  is  so  deeply  rooted  in  men's  hearts  that  they 
find  it  impossible  to  detach  it  from  the  righteousness  of  faith 
or  grace.  And  no  wonder;  for  I  myself  have  found  by  num- 
berless severe  conflicts  how  arduous  a  thing  it  is,  how  purely 
it  is  a  matter  of  divine  gift  to  have  the  knowledge  of  the 
doctrine — that  we  are  justified  by  grace,  without  works, 
that  faith  in  Christ  alone  is  the  only  righteousness  of  the 
saints — to  have  this  knowledge  rooted  and  turned  into  a 
principle  in  the  soul."  "I  have  myself  taught  this  doctrine, 
for  twenty  years,  and  yet  the  old  and  tenacious  mire  clings 
to  me,  so  that  I  find  myself  wanting  to  come  to  God,  bring- 
ing something  in  my  hand  for  which  he  should  bestow  his 
grace  upon  me."  Letter  to  Justus  Jonas,  and  Sermon  on 
J  Tim.  i;  5—7. 


63 

the  merit  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  by  faith,  and  "twit  for  our  own 
works  or  deserving  s" 

Now  although  our  own  works  were  the 
best  that  man  ever  performed,  and  our 
deservings  greater  than  ever  a  sinner 
possessed,  since  the  world  began ;  though 
our  inherent  righteousness  have  been 
growing  these  hundred  years,  and  be 
now  laden  beyond  all  example  with  holy 
fruits;  or,  to  use  the  words  of  Bishop 
Hooper,  "though  a  man  burst  his  heart 
with  contrition,  believe  that  God  is  good 
a  thousand  times  and  burn  in  charity,"  * 
nevertheless  these  are  "our  own  works 
and  deservings"  and  so  are  pronounced, 
in  the  Article,  to  have  no  part  or  lot  in 
our  justification. 

But  for  greater  plainness,  the  works  of 
man  are  divided,  in  our  Articles,  into 
two  classes : — those  done  before,  and  those 
done  after,  receiving  the  grace  of  God, 
i.  e.  Justification.  Of  the  first,  the 
twelfth  Article  declares  that  since  "they 

Bishop  Hooper  on  Justification. 


64 

proceed  not  of  a  lively  faith  in  Jesus 
Christ,  they  are  not  pleasant  to  God," 
but  "rather  for  that  they  are  not  done  as 
God  hath  willed  and  commanded — they 
have  the  nature  of  sin;"  so  far  therefore 
from  deserving  God's  justification,  they 
can  only  increase  our  condemnation. 
Of  works  done  after  we  have  received 
the  grace  of  Christ;  after  the  work  of 
sanctifi cation  lias  been  begun  and  ad- 
vanced in  us,  so  that  we  have  an  inherent 
righteousness,  wrought  in  us  by  the 
spirit  of  Cod,  the  Church,  so  far  from 
allowing  these  the  least  share  in  that  for 
which  we  are  accounted  righteous  be  lore 
God,  declares  in  her  twelfth  Article  that 
such  works  cannot  be  the  cause  of  our 
Justification,  because  "they  follow  after 
it;"  cannot  be  co-workers  writh  faith,  in 
our  Justification,  because  they  are  "the 
fruits  of  faith"  and  though  "pleasing 
and  acceptable  to  God,"  in  Christ,  "can- 
not put  away  our  sins  and  endure  the 
severity  of  God's  Judgment."  But  these 
declarations  are  greatly  enlarged  in  the 


69 

Homily  to  which  the  eleventh  Article 
refers  us  for  a  more  extended  declaration 
of  our  faith.  There,  the  impossibility  of 
our  own  works  and  deservings  having 
any  share  in  our  justification  is  rested, 
as  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle,  not  so  much  upon 
the  fact  that  all  have  sinned  in  innunu- 
rable  instances^  as  upon  the  simple  truth 
that  they  have  sinned;  that  the  Scriptures 
"include  all  under  sin;"  the  extent  or 
number  of  their  sins  not  being  treated  as 
material  to  the  argument.  "Because 
(says  the  Homily)  all  men  be  sinners  and 
offenders  against  God,  and  breakers  of 
His  Law  and  Commandments,  therefore 
can  no  man,  by  his  own  acts,  works,  and 
deeds,  seem  they  never  so  good,  be  jus- 
tified and  made  righteous  before  God ; " 
"Although  we  hear  God's  word  and  be- 
lieve it;  although  we  have  faith,  hope, 
charity,  repentance,  dread  and  fear  of 
God  within  us,  and  do  never  so  many 
good  works  thereunto,  yet  we  must  re- 
nounce the  merits  of  all  our  said  virtues 

of  faith,  hope,  charity  and  our  other  vir- 
5 


66 


tues  and  good  deeds,  which  we  either 
have  done,  shall  do,  or  can  do,  as  things 
that  be  far  too  weak  and  insufficient  and 
imperfect  to  deserve  remission  of  our 
sins  and  our  justification."  The  same 
Homily  is  full  of  passages  of  equal  force 
and  plainness  to  tue  same  effect.  I  can- 
not refer  you  to  a  better  human  study.* 
Let  us  see,  Brethren,  that  we  come  not 
short  of  these  high  examples  of  simpli- 
city and  godly  sincerity,  in  our  ministry, 
labouring  with  all  earnestness  and  con- 
stancy to  abase  the  pride  of  the  human 
heart,  to  strip  the  sinner  of  all  his  secret 
pleas  of  works  and  merit — to  bring  him 
in  guilty,  only  guilty  and  condemned,  at 
the  bar,  as  well  of  his  own  conscience, 
as  of  God  his  Judge.  The  way  of  the 
Lord,  to  the  sinner's  heart,  is  not  pre- 
pared till  every  thought  of  any  thing  to 
make  him  meet  to  be  received  of  Christ, 
or  to  receive  grace  through  Christ,  but 
perfect  beggary  and  worthlessness,  is  cast 
out;  till  every  imagination  of  any  thing 

*  See  Hooker's  Discourse  of  Justification;  $  7. 


67 

to  make  him  acceptable  to  the  Father, 
even  after  centuries  of  holy  living,  but 
the  righteousness  of  Christ  alone,  is  utter- 
ly cast  down.  Here  then,  my  Brethren, 
is  one  of  the  chief  and  one  of  the  long- 
est and  hardest  works  of  our  Ministry  — 
to  convince  men  of  sin,  to  lead  them  to 
feel  that  they  are  shut  up,  as  prisoners  in 
bondage  to  the  curse  of  a  broken  law, 
till  they  "win  Christ  and  be  found  in 
him.,,  "Why  (says  Usher)  do  so  many 
find  no  savour  in  the  gospel?  Is  it  be- 
cause there  is  no  sweetness  in  it?  No, 
it  is  because  such  have  had  no  taste  of 
the  law,  and  of  the  spirit  of  bondage; 
they  have  not  smarted,  nor  found  a  sense 
of  the  bitterness  of  sin,  nor  of  that  just 
punishment  which  is  due  unto  the  same." 
"Thus  a  king  many  times  casts  men  in 
prison,  suffers  the  sentence  of  condem- 
nation to  pass  on  them  and  perhaps  or- 
ders them  to  be  brought  to  the  place  of 
execution  before  he  pardons  them,  and 
then  mercy  is  mercy  indeed.  And  so 
God  deals  with  us.     Many  times  he  puts 


68 


his  children  in  fear;  shows  them  how 
much  they  owe  him,  how  unable  they  are 
to  pay,  casts  them  into  prison,  and  threat- 
ens condemnation  in  hell  forever;  after 
which  when  mercy  comes  to  the  soul, 
then  it  appears  to  be  wonderful  mercy 
indeed,  even  the  riches  of  exceeding 
mercy."  *  So  does  God  expect  us,  the 
ministers  of  his  saving  health,  to  deal 
with  sinners.  Our  preaching  must  show 
them  their  ruin,  their  condemnation,  their 
just  exposure  to  the  instant  and  eternal 
wrath  of  God;  it  must  smite  down  their 
refuges  of  lies,  silence  their  vain  excuses, 
reduce  them  to  the  one  confession  of 
guilty,  undone,  lost ;  or  it  will  fail  of  its 
first  work,  that  of  leading  lost  souls  to 
Christ. 

It  is  my  firm  belief  that  a  very  great 
cause  of  the  little  success  of  much  of  the 
preaching  of  Christ's  ministers,  in  that 
great  business  of  converting  sinners  and 
leading  them  to  the  refuge  provided  in 
the  Lamb  of  God,  is  to  be  found  in  a 

*  Usher's  Sermons. 


69 

want  of  a  sufficiently  distinct,  pointed 
presentation,  to  the  impenitent,  of  the 
naked  truth,  the  whole,  the  awful  truth, 
of  the  present  condemnation,  the  present 
abiding  under  the  wrath  of  God,  of 
every  one  who  hath  not  fled  to  Christ. 
There  is  a  kind  of  ministry  which  preach- 
es the  truth  indeed  on  this  head,  but  the 
truth  so  enveloped  in  generalities,  so 
buried  in  accompaniments,  that  while  a 
mind  awake  to  divine  things  can  readily 
see  it,  the  unconverted  "hear  indeed,  but 
do  not  perceive."  What  the  impenitent 
need  is  to  see  themselves  insulated  by 
the  stern  demands  of  a  violated  law; 
" coyidemned  already"  as  really,  though 
not  as  irreversibly ',  as  if  the  judgment 
day  were  over ;  or  to  use  the  language  of 
the  Apostle,  "condemned  unto  sin"  sur- 
rounded, as  by  a  wall  of  fire,  with  its 
penalties,  and  thus  "shut  up  unto  the 
faith"  of  Christ,  as  all  their  hope;  so 
that  the  law  shall  be  their  "schoolmaster 
to  bring  them  unto  Christ  that  they  may 
be   justified    by   faith."     This   is   what 


70 

Usher  calls  "putting  the  point  of  God's 
sword  to  their  very  breasts."  "The  law 
(he  says)  must  have  this  operation  before 
a  sinner  comes  to  the  throne  of  grace. 
None  will  fly  to  the  city  of  refuge,  till 
the  avenger  of  blood  be  hard  at  his  heels ; 
nor  any  to  Christ  till  he  sees  his  want." 
"Where  the  law  hath  not  wrought  its  con- 
vincing work  with  power  upon  the  con- 
science, (says  Bishop  Hopkins)  there  the 
preaching  of  Christ  will  be  altogether  in 
vain."  It  is  a  great  matter  for  a  preacher 
of  the  gospel  to  attain  to  such  clearness 
and  directness  and  point  in  his  preaching 
of  the  law,  that,  while  fully  displaying 
all  that  is  encouraging  and  precious  in 
the  Gospel  to  the  penitent,  the  naked 
sword  of  God's  law  is  faithfully  presented 
to  all  who  are  not  "in  Christ  Jesus;"  so 
that  they  who  see  at  all  cannot  help  per- 
ceiving that  other  refuge  there  is  none 
save  that  "blessed  hope,"  the  perfect 
obedience,  the  atoning  death,  the  present 
ever-living  intercession  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. 


71 

My  dear  Brethren,  how  is  it  with  us, 
as  to  this  matter?  Do  we  make  it  a  main 
and  constant  object  of  our  ministry  to 
convince  men  of  sin?  Do  we  preach 
the  law,  the  old,  the  perfect  law,  that 
which  tolerates  no  imperfection — whose 
terms  are  "do  this  and  live" — "the  min- 
istry of  condemnation"  that  we  may  make 
straight  the  way  for  "the  ministration  of 
righteousness,"  "to  wit,  that  God  was  in 
Christ  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself, 
not  imputing  their  trespasses  unto  them  ?" 
Do  we  strive  after  great  plainness  of 
speech  on  these  points  lest  "ears  that  be 
dull  of  hearing "  should  not  hear  them,  or 
"they  that  hear,  should  not  perceive?" 
Do  we  expect  any  saving  benefit  from 
our  ministry  to  the  souls  of  our  hearers, 
till  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  they  are  persua- 
ded to  come,  as  the  lost  and  the  beggared, 
with  the  empty  hand  of  an  imploring 
faith,  to  ask  alms  of  Christ  even  mercy  to 
unrighteousness!  Besure  we  can  build 
up  no  superstructure  of  piety,  but  as  upon 


hay  and  stubble,  till  we  have  first  surelv 
laid  this  foundation  of  rock. 

But  it  is  time  to  proceed  to  another 
main  point  of  our  duty,  as  preachers  of 
God's  righteousness  for  the  reconciliation 
of  the  sinner.  While  we  earnestly  insist 
on  the  absolute  insufficiency  of  our  own 
works,  or  inwrought  righteousness,  to  do 
any,  even  the  leasts  part  of  our  Justifica- 
tion ;  what  must  tee  teach,  as  to  that  only 
and  all-sufficient  Righteousness  by  which 
we  may  be  justified  ? 

I  answer  from  the  Word  of  God. 
"Be  it  known  unto  you,  men  and  breth- 
ren, that  through  this  man  (Christ  Jesus) 
is  preached  unto  you  forgiveness  of  sins; 
and  by  him  all  that  believe,  are  justified 
from  all  things  from  which  they  could  not 
be  justified  by  the  law  of  Moses."* 
But  justified  how?  "  Justified  freely  by 
his  grace  "i  answers  St.  Paul.  But  what 
grace?  Is  it  by  grace  dwelling  in  us, 
under  the  form  of  personal  holiness  — 

*  Acts  xiii;  38,  9= 
t  Rom.  iii:  24^ 


I  JO 

inherent  righteousness?  Paul  answers 
again.  "Not  having  mine  own  right- 
eousness, which  is  of  the  Law ;  but  that 
which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ,  the 
righteousness  which  is  of  Gocl,  by  faith."  * 
But  ,how  make  this  external  righteous- 
ness available  to  our  justification?  St. 
Paul  answers  again.  It  is  "the  right- 
eousness of  God  which  is  by  the  faith  of 
Jesus  Christ  to  all  them  that  believe" t 
"  Not  of  works  lest  any  man  should 
boast."  t  It  is  righteousness  imputed  tc 
the  believer.  "Even  as  David  descri- 
beth  the  blessedness  of  the  man,  to  whom 
the  Lord  imputeth  righteousness  without 
works."  §  Thus  "  being  justified  by 
faith,  we  have  peace  with  God  through 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  ||  "There  is 
now  therefore  no  condemnation  to  them 
that  are  in  Christ  Jesus."  %  This  is  the 
way  of  a  sinner's  justification,  of  which, 

*  Phil,  iii;  9. 
t  Rom.  iii;  22. 
t  Eph.  ii;  9. 
§  Rom.  iv;  5,  6. 
|  Rom.  v;  1. 
II  Rom.  viii;  1- 


says  that  holy  mail,  Bishop  Hall:  "We 
Moss  God  for  so  clear  a  light;  and  dure 
cast  our  souls  upon  this  sure  B\  idence  of 
God,  attended  with  the  perpetual  evi- 
dence of  his  ancient  Church.*  "Christ's 
Imputed  justice  apprehended  by  faith; 
(he  continues^  all  antiquity  is  with  us  for 
this.  A  just  volume  would  scarce  con- 
tain the  pregnant  testimonies  of  the  Fath- 
ers to  this  purpose"  *  That  this  is  none 
other  than  the  doctrine  of  our  Church  is 
evident  to  all  who  know  the  strong  lan- 
guage of  her  Articles  and  Homilies;  she 
declares,  in  her  eleventh  Article,  that 
"we  are  accounted  righteous  before  God 
onlu  for  the  merit  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  fa/  faith,  and  not 
for  our  own  works  or  deservings.  Where- 
fore that  we  are  justified  by  faith  oah/, 

•  Works.  Svo— vol.  ix.:  p.  239 and 244. 

•'That  man  is  justified  b:i  faith,  without  the  tcorks  of  rJW 
Uic.  was  i^-vs  Bishop  HoreXey)  the  uniform  doctrine  of  the 
first  Reformers.  It  is  a  far  more  ancient  doctrine.  It  was 
the  doctrine  of  the  whole  College  of  Apostles.  It  is  more 
ancient  still:  It  was  the  doctrine  of  the  Prophets.  It  is 
older  than  the  Prophets:  It  was  the  religion  of  the  Patri- 
archs. It  is  the  very  corner  stone  of  the  whole  system  of 
Redemption."     Charge  by  Bishop  Horsley. 


i  most  wholesome  docti  Lei 

u  i  mark  (he  precision  of  this  langua 
the  rjghteomneM  which  in  by  the  faith  of 
Chri  Jt,    and    /»//•   r> 
hei<  D   die    example    of    St. 

Paul,*  let  in  dii  on;  thewordi 

"rm/j/  for  the   merits  of  Christ"    l>       ; 
evidently  the  intended  op  of   "./^r 

ov/r  ojor  work  .        I  fa 
the   latter*     ri  be  two  are  incapable  of 
tiding  to  Matter*     Ei  en 

faith  w  R  k    of  peCKWal 

grace  is  excluded*  and 

as    an  mnectiori    with 

Christ,  t     But  iueh  m  the  fulness  of  that 
,/<< ,/'(>, isms  can  o  all  who  belie 

that  tin  yhUous;   in 

other  worn  occ/w/Ued 

*  Pi 

f  |t  M  i  >.tni- 

- 

et  rr. 

What  ix  seal  .*z  f/f  per 

with  Jfffaft,   s.r:d  j/ropter  with   M 
opera  nostra. 


76 

or  imputed  to  them;  righteousness  as 
perfect,  as  the  merits  of  our  Redeemer, 
because  of  those  merits,  it  consists;  so 
that,  to  believers,  God  no  more  imputes 
sin,  than  if  they  had  never  sinned.  And 
since  this  righteousness  is  by  faith,  with- 
out restriction  of  time  or  degree,  it  must 
be  imputed  as  soon  as  faith  begins;  so 
that  we  no  sooner  believe  in  Jesus  Christ 
than  we  are  accounted  righteous  in  him, 
and  so  are  perfectly  justified,  and  have 
entire  peace  with  God. 

But  the  Homily,  to  which  the  Article 
refers,  is  still  more  explicit.  "Our  jus- 
tification doth  come  purely  by  the  mere 
mercy  of  God,  and  of  so  great  and  free 
mercy,  that  whereas  all  the  world  was 
not  able,  of  themselves,  to  pay  any  part 
towards  their  ransom,  it  pleased  our 
Heavenly  Father,  of  his  infinite  mercy, 
without  any  desert  or  deserving,  to  pre- 
pare for  us  the  most  precious  jewels  of 
Christ's  body  and  blood;  whereby  our 
ransom  might  be  fully  paid,  the  law  ful- 
filled,   and   his   justice   fully  sanctified. 


77 

So  that  Christ  is  now  the  righteousness 
of  all  them  that  truly  believe  in  him. 
He  for  them  paid  their  ransom  by  his 
death.  He  for  them  fulfilled  the  law  in 
his  life.  So  that  note  in  him  and  by  him, 
every  true  christian  may  be  called  a  ful- 
Jiller  of  the  laic"  Mark  the  strength  of 
these  last  words!  They  teach  us  that 
when  it  is  said,  in  the  Article,  that  by 
faith  "we  are  accounted  righteous  before 
God,"  we  are  to  understand  no  less  than 
that  whenever  a  sinner  believes  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  though  his  sins  be 
as  scarlet,  and  as  many  as  sands  upon  the 
sea  shore,  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is 
so  perfectly  "made  over  to  him"  that  he 
stands,  in  Him,  before  God,  as  having 
nothing  laid  to  his  charge;  his  sins  re- 
membered no  more;  his  justification  as 
perfect  as  was  that  of  Adam  before  he 
sinned,  no  more  capable  of  being  in- 
creased, than  the  righteousness  of  "the 
beloved"  in  whom  he  is  accepted.  This 
is  the  fulness  of  the  glory  of  our  redemp- 
tion.    "It  is  finished:'     "He  that  be- 


78 

lieveth  is  justified  from  all  things  from 
which  he  could  not  be  justified  by  the 
law  of  Moses."  Therefore  does  St.  Paul 
triumphantly  exclaim:  "Who  shall  lay 
any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect? 
It  is  God  that  justifieth,  who  is  he  that 
condemneth?"  Such  is  the  blessed  doc- 
trine which  our  Church  most  truly  pro- 
nounces to  be  "a  most  wholesome  doctrine, 
and  very  full  of  comfort''' 

Brethren,  I  am  free  to  say  that  if  we 
preach  the  gospel  of  salvation  in  its  ful- 
ness, and  freeness,  and  preciousness,  and 
glory,  we  must  not  fail  to  preach  Justifi- 
cation in  all  this  length  and  breadth  and 
perfectness.  I  find  not  that  our  old  and 
great  divines  had  any  hesitation  in  doing 
so.  Witness  Bishop  Beveridge — speak- 
ing of  our  being  in  Christ,  by  faith,  he 
says:  "Then  God  looks  upon  us,  not  as 
in  ourselves,  but  as  members  of  that  body 
whereof  his  Son  is  head,  and  as  parta- 
kers of  all  the  merits  of  his  life  and  death. 
That  most  perfect  obedience  and  right- 
eousness which  he  performed  to  God  for 


79 

us,  being  made  over  to  us  and  reckoned 
ours.  In  which  therefore  we  appear  as 
Righteous  before  God  and  he  is  pleased 
to  accept  of  us  as  much,  as  if  we  were 
perfectly  so  in  ourselves,  or  rather  more. 
TJte  righteousness  which  we  have  in  Christ \ 
being  far  greater  than  it  was  possible  for 
us  to  have  performed  in  our  most  p>erfect 
state"  *  There  seems  no  room  in  this 
language  for  that  second  Justification  of 
which  some  speak,  or  for  any  increase  of 
justification.  Still  stronger,  if  possible, 
is  Hooker.  "By  faith  we  are  incorpo- 
rated into  Christ.  Then  although  in 
ourselves  we  be  altogether  sinful  and  un- 
righteous, yet  even  the  man  which  is  im- 
pious in  himself  full  of  iniquity,  full  of 
sin ;  him  being  found  in  Christ,  through 
faith,  and  having  his  sin  remitted,  through 
Repentance ;  him  God  beholdeth  with  a 
gracious  eye,  putteth  away  his  sin  by  not 
imputing  it,  taketh  quite  away  the  pun- 
ishment due  thereto  by  pardoning  it  and 
accepteth  him  in  Jesus  Christ,   as  per- 

*  Beveridge's  Sermons;  No.  54. 


so 

fectly  righteous  as  if  he  had  fulfilled  all 
that  was  commanded  in  the  law;  shall  I 
say  more  perfectly  righteous  than  if  him- 
self had  fulfilled  the  whole  law?  I  must 
take  heed  what  I  say ;  but  the  Apostle 
saith  'God  made  him  to  be  sin  for  us, 
who  knew  no  sin ;  that  we  might  be 
made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him.' 
Such  we  are  in  the  sight  of  God  the 
Father,  as  is  the  very  Son  of  God  him- 
self. Let  it  be  counted  folly,  or  frenzy, 
or  fury,  whatsoever,  it  is  our  comfort  and 
our  wisdom.  We  care  for  no  knowledge 
in  the  world  but  this,  that  man  hath  sin- 
ned, and  God  hath  suffered;  that  God 
hath  made  himself  the  Son  of  Man,  and 
that  men  are  made  the  righteousness  of 
God."  * 

Thus  much  for  the  perfectness  of  our 
justification,  upon  the  simple  act  of  faith. 

You  perceive,  Brethren,  that  I  have 
freely  used  the  word  imputed,  as  applied 
to  the  righteousness  of  faith.  I  use  it 
because  it  is  the  Scripture  word.     "Bles- 

*  Discourse  of  Justification;  §  vi. 


SI 


sed  is  the  man  unto  whom  the  Lord  im- 
puteth  righteousness  without  works."  It 
is  used  by  our  translators  interchangably 
with  "reckoned"  and  "counted;" — all 
these  three  words  being  employed  for 
the  same  Greek  word  of  St.  Paul.*  I 
understand  by  it,  precisely  what  the 
Church  means  by  the  word,  "accounted" 
in  her  eleventh  Article.  Righteousness 
accounted  or  reckoned  to  us,  is  righteous- 
ness imputed.  So  is  the  word  used  by 
our  ancient  divines.  Witness  the  writer 
of  the  Article.  Speaking  of  the  conse- 
quences of  a  lively  faith  in  Christ,  says 
Cranmer:  "Then  God  doth  no  more 
impute  unto  us  our  former  sins ;  but  he 
doth  impute  and  give  unto  us  the  justice 
and  righteousness  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 
And  so  we  be  counted  righteous,  for  as 
much  as  no  man  dare  accuse  us  for  that 
sin  for  the  which  sanctification  is  made 
by  our  Saviour  Christ."  t  In  explaining 
such  a  passage  as  that  of  ii.  Cor.  v ;  21  — 

■  Rom.  iv. 

t  Cranmer' s  Catechism;  (Redemption.) 


88 

'He  hath  made  him  to  he  sin  for  us  who 
knew  no  sin,  that  we  might  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  Goel  in  him*'  I  know  of 
no  more  appropriate  language  than  to 
say,  of  the  first  part,  that  it  expresses  the 
imputation  of  our  sin  to  Christ;  and  of 
the  second  part,  that  it  expresses  the  im- 
putation of  Christ's  righteousness  to  us. 
In  any  other  aspect,  the  verse  is  not  in- 
telligible. Thus  says  Bishop  Hall,  ex- 
pounding that  verse:  "So  were  we  made 
his  righteousness,  as  he  was  made  our  sin. 
Imputation  doeth  both.  It  is  that  which 
enfeoffs  our  sins  upon  Christ  and  us  in 
his  righteousness.  Scripture  every  where 
teacheth  our  perfect  justification  by  the 
imputed  righteousness  of  our  Saviour, 
brought  home  to  us  by  faith."  * 

I  hnd  no  hesitation  in  such  writers  as 
Archbishops  Cranmer  and  Usher;  Bish- 
ops Hooper,  Andrews,  Hall,  Davenant, 
Reynolds,  Hopkins,  Beveridge,  the  "ju- 
dicious Hooker,"  6cc,  in  speaking  of  the 
righteousness   of   Christ,   as  imputed  to 

*  Works,  8vo — vol.  ij.;  pp.  242,  3. 


S3 

the  believer,  and  the  sins  of  the  believer, 
as  imputed  to  Christ,  and  that,  in  the 
fullest  sense  of  imputation.  In  addition 
to  the  evidence  already  given  from  Cran- 
mer  and  Hall,  the  following  from  Arch- 
bishop Usher  will  suffice.  "This  is  im- 
putative righteousness,  as  it  is  in  the  Arti- 
cles of  the  Church  of  England.  That 
for  the  merits  of  Jesus  Christ,  God  is 
well  pleased  with  the  obedience  of  his 
Son,  both  active  and  passive,  as  that  he 
takes  us  to  be  in  that  state  for  his  sake, 
as  if  we  had  all  fulfilled  his  laws,  and 
never  broken  them  at  any  time,  and  as  if 
we  owed  him  not  a  farthing.  And  this 
kind  of  justification  must  of  necessity  be 
by  imputation:  why?  because  when  a 
man  hath  committed  a  sin  it  cannot  be 
undone  again.  The  act  passed  cannot 
be  revoked.  How  then  can  I  be  justi- 
fied, the  sin  being  past,  and  the  nature  of 
it  still  remaining?  I  say  how  can  I  be 
justified  any  other  way  than  by  imputa- 
tion?    This  kind  of  justification  which 


84 

consists  in  the  remission  of  sins,  cannot 
but  be  imputative"  * 

Now,  my  Brethren,  if  these  views  of 
the  forensic  nature,  and  the  only  merito- 
rious cause  of  our  justification,  be  scrip- 
tural, I  see  not  the  least  room  remaining 
for  the  idea  that  Justification  is  progres- 
sive, admits  of  increase,  and  that  a  sinner 
can  be  more  and  more  justified.  But  if 
Justification  be  not  entirely  a  Judicial, 
Imputative  process ;  if  it  be,  in  part  at 
least,  the  act  of  God  making  a  sinner 
personally  righteous  by  a  substance  of 
righteousness  infused  or  implanted,  then 
we  can  see  how  it  may  be  progressive, 
and  have,  as  Hooker  describes  such  jus- 
tification as  having,  "its  divers  after 
meals" — but  only  such  justification. 

"By  faith  we  are  incorporated  into 
Christ."  In  other  words,  by  faith  we  are 
"in  Christ  Jesus"  A  weak  faith  accom- 
plishes this  living  union  as  really,  though 
not  with  so  much  sensible  consolation  to 
the  soul,  as  a  stronger  faith.     But  (says 

*  Usher's  Sermons  on  Justification.     See  Appendix,  B. 


85 

St.  Paul)  "there  is  no  condemnation  to 
them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus"  *  Now, 
condemnation  is  the  precise  opposite  of 
Justification.  Where  one  is  not,  the 
other  must  be.  To  impute  sin,  is  to 
condemn ;  not  to  impute  sin,  is  to  justify. 
In  precisely  the  same  sense  and  degree, 
therefore,  in  which  Justification  is  pro- 
gressive, must  Condemnation  be  also.  If 
it  be  reasonable  to  speak  of  God's  impu- 
ting sin  only  partially r,  so  that  a  man  shall 
be  accounted  as  only  partly  a  sinner,  and 
partly  not  a  sinner,  then  it  is  reasonable 
to  speak  of  God's  justifying  but  partly ■, 
or  accounting  a  man,  in  a  judicial  sense, 
only  partly  righteous,  partly  condemned 
and  partly  justified,  which  would  amount 
to  being  partly  a  child  of  God  and  partly 
a  child  of  the  devil;  partly  under  pen- 
alty of  the  law,  partly  under  grace.  But 
Condemnation  is  not  progressive,  in  any 
sense.  It  is  perfect  as  soon  as  we  sin. 
A  thousand  more  sins  will  increase  our 
penalty,  but  cannot  increase  the  perfect- 

*  Rom.  viii;  I, 


H6 

ness  of  our  condemnation.  The  amount 
of  penalty  depends  on  the  amount  of 
guilt.  The  perfectness  of  condemnation 
depends  only  on  the  fact  of  guilt.  So  in 
Justification.  Christ's  Righteousness  is 
set  in  precise  opposition  to  our  sin.  Jus- 
tification depends  upon  our  having  that 
righteousness  accounted  to  us,  instead  of 
our  sin.  It  is  faith  which  obtains  that 
righteousness.  "  Being  j  ustitied  by  faith, 
we  have  peace  with  God."  As  the  first 
act  of  sin  condemns  perfectly,  so,  anala- 
gously,  the  first  act  of  faith  justifies  per- 
fectly. Subsequent  acts  of  faith  and 
stronger  degrees  thereof  will  increase 
our  sense  of  consolation  in  Christ,  and 
our  confidence  of  the  love  of  God,  and 
our  strength  in  every  walk  of  godliness, 
and  will  multiply  upon  our  souls,  for  pres- 
ent comfort  and  spiritual  prosperity,  all 
the  recompense  arising  from  such  growth 
in  grace;  just  as  increase  of  guilt  in- 
creases shame  and  penalty ;  but  all  this 
can  no  more  acquire  for  us  a  more  per- 
fect  justification    than    additional    guilt 


8' 


would  obtain  a  more  entire  condemna- 
tion. Christ  our  Righteousness  is  our 
strong  city — our  City  of  Refuge ;  —  once 
beyond  the  gates,  the  sinner  is  safe  from 
the  Avenger,  whether  he  enter  far  within, 
or  just  cross  the  threshold.*  Christ  is 
the  Ark.  It  mattered  not  in  the  days  of 
Noah  whether  those  who  fled  from  the 
flood  to  the  Ark,  were  possessed  of  a 
weak,  or  trembling  faith;  whether,  du- 
ring the  awfulness  of  the  deluge,  they 
all  felt  assured  of  protection,  or  were 
some  of  them  doubtful.  Strong,  or 
weak  in  faith,  they  had  fled  for  refuge 
to  the  hope  set  before  them.  When 
the  flood  came  they  were  found  there- 
in. It  was  enough.  All,  from  the 
very  instant  of  their  entrance,  were  alike 
perfectly  secure  under  the  shadow  of  the 
Almighty.  Continuing  in  the  Ark,  their 
safety  admitted  neither  of  increase  nor 
diminution.  So  in  Christ.  He  that  wins 
Christ,  and  is  found  in  him,  is  "  complete 
in  him."     He  may  have  entered  the  last 

*  S?e  Leighton  on  1  Peter,  iii:  21. 


88 

hour,  or  the  last  century ;  he  may  have 
come  doubting,  or  assured ;  his  hand  may 
have  reached  the  refuge  with  a  firm  or  a 
feeble  grasp ;  he  may  have  escaped  out 
of  the  deepest  mire  of  ungodliness,  or 
from  having  been  always  "not  far  from 
the  kingdom;" — but  it  altereth  not;  he 
is  in  the  Ark.  God  hath  shut  him  in. 
"Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to  his  charge?" 
"It  is  God  that  justifieth.  Who  is  he 
that  condemneth  ?  It  is  Christ  that  died ; 
yea,  rather  that  is  risen  again — who  also 
maketh  intercession  for  us."  * 

Evidently,  since  the  justification  of 
any  one  w^ho  is  "t»  Christ  Jesus'9  is  ju- 
dicial, and  by  virtue  of  a  righteousness 
not  his  own,  except  as  it  is  "accounted" 
to  him ;  whatever  imperfection  there  may 
be  in  his  justification  must  be  ascribed 
to  that  accounted  righteousness.  The 
very  nature  of  such  imputation  supposes 
that  of  the  thing  imputed,  the  whole  is 
imputed.     According  to  Hooker,  "That 

*  See  the  comparison  of  the  safety  of  those  in  Christ,  to 
that  of  those  in  ihe  Ark  beautifully  expressed  in  Leighton  on 
1  Peter,  iii;  20. 


89 

wherein  we  are  partakers  of  Jesus  Christ 
by  imputation,  agreeth  equally  unto  all 
that  have  it."  In  other  words  it  is  not 
as  if  some  received  more,  others  less. 
"Again,  (he  says)  a  deed  must  either 
not  be  imputed  to  any,  but  rest  alto- 
gether in  him  whose  it  is ;  or  if  at  all  it 
be  imputed,  they  which  have  it  by  impu- 
tation, must  have  it  whole.  So  that  de- 
grees being  neither  in  the  personal  pres- 
ence of  Christ,  nor  in  the  participation 
of  those  effects  which  are  ours  by  impu- 
tation only;  it  resteth  that  we  wholly 
apply  them  (degrees)  to  the  participation 
of  Christ's  infused  grace"  i.  e.  the  grace 
of  sanctification.*  Hence,  justification 
can  be  imperfect,  capable  of  increase  or 
diminution  only  so  far  as  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  can  be  so,  who  is  "the 
same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever." 

We  have  not  room  to  go  any  further 

into  this  part  of  our  subject.     It  seems 

indeed  to  be  necessarily  settled  by  the 

judicial  sense  of  Justification,  and  the 

*  Ecci.  Pol.,  c.  v.,  ^  56. 


excluding,  from  its  ground- work,  all  in- 
herent righteousness  and  resting  entirely 
upon  the  perfect  and  external  righteous- 
ness of  Christ,  accounted  or  imputed  to 
every  one  that  belie veth.  Where  this  is 
not  distinctly  seen,  it  would  seem  that 
there  must  be  some  confounding  of 
righteousness  accounted  unto  us  through 
faith,  with  righteousness  wrought  in  us 
by  The  Spirit;  Justification,  with  Sanc- 
tis cation  ;  deliverance  from  the  condem- 
nation of  sin,  with  progressive  emanci- 
pation from  its  indwelling  power  and  pol- 
lution. The  latter,  in  our  Church,  is 
said  to  "follow  after"  Justification. 
While,  in  the  Church  of  Rome,  it  is 
made  the  basis  of  what  they  call  the 
second  Justification.  It  is  therefore  per- 
fectly consistent  for  the  Romanist  to 
maintain  Justification  progressive,  since 
that  is  progressive  on  which  it  rests. 
Thus  do  we  find,  in  Hooker's  account 
of  "the  maze  which  the  Church  of 
Rome  doth  cause  her  followers  to  tread," 
this  progressiveness  of  Justification  des- 


91 

cribed  as  part  of  "the  maze"  and  a 
prominent  characteristic  of  what  he  calls 
"t/ie  mystery  of  the  Man  of  Sin."  The 
grace  or  righteousness  of  Justification, 
he  says,  "they  make  capable  of  increase ; 
as  the  body  may  be  more  and  more  warm, 
so  the  soul  may  be  more  and  more  justi- 
fied, according  as  grace  should  be  aug- 
mented. Unto  such  as  have  attained 
the  first  Justification,  that  is  to  say,  the 
first  receipt  of  Grace,  it  is  applied  fur- 
ther by  good  works,  to  the  increase  of 
former  grace,  which  is  the  second  Justi- 
fication, If  they  work  more  and  more, 
Grace  doth  more  increase,  and  they  are 
more  and  more  justified."  *  In  the  de- 
crees of  the  Council  of  Trent,  it  is  given 
as  one  of  the  infallible  determinations  of 
the  Romish  Church,  that  "the  just  are 
more  justified  by  observing  the  com- 
mandments of  God  and  the  Church;" 
and  it  was  one  of  the  doctrines  of  Pro- 
testantism, which  the  Canons  of  that 
Council   condemned,    that    Justification 

*  Discourss  of  Justification;  ft  v. 


"is  not  increased  by  good  works,  but 
they  are  only  its  fruits."  *  But  hear 
how  the  divines  of  our  Church  have 
asserted  this  feature  of  Protestant  con- 
fession. Says  Beveridge:  "When  God 
pardons  any  man's  sins,  he  pardons  aU 
his  sins.  All  his  acts  of  grace  are  with- 
out exceptions,  so  that  all  our  former 
sins  shall  be  as  if  they  never  had  been. 
Nay  more  than  that  too,  whensoever 
God  pardons  our  sins,  he  accepts  our 
persons ;  so  far  from  looking  upon  us  as 
sinners,  that  he  accounts  us  Righteous" t 
Hear  also  how  the  learned  Usher  speaks. 
Speaking  of  imputed  and  inherent  right- 
eousness, he  says:  "The  one  receives 
degrees,  the  other  not.  As  a  man  that 
is  holy  may  be  more  holy ;  but  imputed 
righteousness  doth  not  more  forgive  one 
man  than  another.  Imputation  is  with- 
out augmentation  or  diminution"  X  Hear 
also,  Bishop  Hopkins,  of  most  venerable 
memory.      "  It   is    not   said,    he   only, 

*  F.  Paolo's  Hist.  Council  of  Trent. 

■  Sermons;  No.  144. 

X  Usher's  Sermons:  No.  xv. 


93 

whose  faith  is  so  strong  as  to  overcome 
all  temptations  and  all  doubts  and  to 
flourish  up  to  assurance,  he  only  shall  be 
saved;  but  whosoever  believes  shall  be 
saved,  though  his*faith  be  very  weak  and 
very  wavering.  And  the  reason  of  this 
is  clear :  for  faith  doth  not  save  us  as  it 
is  a  sanctifying,  but  as  it  is  a  justifying 
grace.  It  justifies,  as  it  entitles  us  to 
Christ's  perfect  righteousness.  But  a 
weak  faith  can  make  a  full  conveyance  of 
the  righteousness  and  merits  of  Christ  as 
well  as  a  strong  faith;  therefore  the 
weakest  faith  of  the  most  trembling  and 
timorous  Christian  doth  as  firmly  entitle 
him  to  heaven  and  glory,  as  the  most 
strong  and  undaunted  faith  of  the  most 
assured  Christian."  *  • 

But  it  is  objected,  if  this  be  true,  what 
need  of  an  increasing  faith  ?  Why  pray 
"Lord  increase  our  faith?"  I  answer: 
"  The  more  firm  and  lively  the  faith  we 
have,  the  better  and  the  more  sincerely 
we  work ;  the  more  unfeigned  and  faith- 

*  Bishop  Hopkins  on  the  AUsufficiency  of  Christ. 


94 

fully  we  renounce  all  confidence  in  our- 
selves." *  I  answer  again:  "The  more 
faith,  the  more  comfort.  If  thou  hast 
a  strong  faith,  thou  wilt  have  a  strong 
consolation.  Thou  mayest  by  thy  wreak 
faith,  be  healed  of  thy  disease,  yet  by 
the  weakness  of  thy  faith,  thou  mayest 
want  much  of  the  strength  of  thy  com- 
fort ;  therefore  thou  must  go  from  faith 
to  faith ;  but  know  this,  that  a  new-born 
child  is  not  yet  so  strong  as  a  man,  yet 
he  is  as  much  alive  as  the  strongest  and 
tallest  man."  t 

Brethren,  let  us  not  imagine  that  this 
doctrine  of  the  instant  and  perfect  justi- 
fication of  the  sinner,  the  moment  the 
hand  of  his  faith  but  touches  the  skirt  of 
the  robe  of  our  blessed  Redeemer's  right- 
eousness, is  a  mere  matter  of  empty 
speculation,  unconnected  with  any  of 
the  precious  hopes  of  the  Christian,  ex- 
ercising no  important  bearing  upon  our 
views  of  the  rich  consolations  of  the  gos- 

*  Jackson's  Works;- vol.  1,  p.  758. 
t  Usher's  Sermons;  No.  xvi. 


95 

pel.  It  seems  to  me  to  be  connected  in 
the  most  important  sense  with  the  very 
essence  of  the  gospel,  and  the  most  vital 
part  of  the  Christian's  daily  consolation 
in  Christ.  His  whole  ability  to  rejoice, 
in  hope  of  the  glory  of  God,  as  he  is 
commanded  to  rejoice;  his  whole  confi- 
dence of  victory  over  "the  strength"  of 
sin,  which  is  "the  law,"  and  over  the  ter- 
'rors  of  death  which  are  the  thunders  of 
the  law ;  yea  the  glory  of  the  redemp- 
tion that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  as  a  free 
redemption  for  the  unworthiest,  and  a 
finished  redemption  for  the  neediest,  and 
a  perfect  redemption,  reaching  to  the 
uttermost  of  the  sinner's  guilt  and  help- 
lessness and  fears ;  all  seem  involved,  in  a 
very  material  degree,  in  this  question. 
How  can  we  understand  the  Article  of 
our  Church  where  it  declares  that  the 
doctrine  of  Justification  by  faith  only, 

"IS  VERY  FULL    OF    COMFORT,"  as  Well  as 

"a  most  wholesome  doctrine,"  on  any 
other  ground  than  that  which  we  have 
exhibited?     If  the  believer  already  jus- 


96 

tified  by  faith  and  at  peace  with  God 
can  be  more  justified;  then  his  present 
justification  is  imperfect,  and  his  peace  is 
but  partial.  Since  that  imperfection  can- 
not arise  out  of  any  thing  defective  in 
Christ;  it  only  remains  that  he  ascribe  it 
to  something  defective  in  himself.  He 
must  ascribe  it  either  to  the  defective- 
ness of  his  faith,  or  love,  or  something 
else,  or  all  together.  How  is  he  to  know 
when  he  may  hope  that  this  imperfection 
is  so  far  removed  that  his  peace  with 
God  is  perfected?  Is  there  any  line, 
drawn  by  human  or  divine  authority,  by 
which  he  may  know  of  a  truth  when  his 
inherent  graces  are  too  imperfect  for  an 
entire  justification,  and  when  so  well 
grown  as  to  be  capable  of  no  increase  of 
justification ?  The  scheme  in  view,  can 
pretend  to  no  such  line.  Then  there  is 
never  a  time  when  a  Christian  can  do 
else  than  conjecture,  whether  his  peace  is 
entirely  made  with  God  or  not ;  whether 
his  faith  or  other  works  be  sufficient 
or  not  for  a  full  deliverance  from  the 


97 

condemnation  of  the  law.  Thus  must 
he  be  all  his  life  "in  bondage  through 
fear  of  death."  Thus,  instead  of  being 
able  to  say,  with  Christians  of  old, 
"though  now  we  see  him  not,  yet  be- 
lieving we  rejoice,  with  joy  unspeakable, 
and  full  of  glory,"  *  he  must  leave  out 
the  last  clause,  and  say,  believing  in  him 
indeed,  but  knowing  not  that  we  have 
any  reason  to  hope  ever  to  be  with  him 
in  glory.  Instead  of  being  able  to  say? 
with  ancient  saints,  "We  know  not  what 
we  shall  be,  but  this  we  know ;  that  when 
He  shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him,  for 
we  shall  see  him  as  he  is;"  "when  Christ, 
who  is  our  life,  shall  appear,  then  shall 
we  also  appear  with  him  in  glory ; "  t  he 
must  postpone  such  precious  hopes,  and 
decline  such  sweet  rejoicings,  as  too 
"full  of  comfort"  for  his  notion  of  justifi- 
cation by  faith,  and  bid  them  wait  till 
after  death,  when  the  fearful  question 
shall  be  settled — the  question,  not  of  the 

*  1  Pet.  i;  8. 

t  1  John  iii,  2;  and  Col.  iii;  4. 


98 

existence  of  a  true  faith,  but  of  the  suffi- 
cient progression  of  that  and  other  qual- 
ities for  his  entire  justification  through 
Christ,  and  consequently  his  "title  to 
the  tree  of  life."  #  This  does  not  seem 
like  "the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God,"  "wherewith  Christ  hath  made 
them  free."  This  does  not  sound  like 
"the  confidence  and  the  rejoicing  of  hope" 
which  we  are  to  hold  "fast"  and  "firm 
unto  the  end."  t  This,  I  cannot  think, 
was  St.  Paul's  consolation  when  he  said 
for  himself  and  other  Christians,  "we 
knoiv  that  when  our  earthly  house  of  this 
tabernacle  shall  be  dissolved,  we  have  a 
building  of  God — eternal  in  the  hea- 
vens." X 

The  more  a  Christian  grows  in  grace, 
the  more  deep  becomes  his  sense  of  the 
sinfulness  of  sin,  the  more  clearly  does 
he  see  the  imperfections  of  all  his  works 
and  graces,  the  less  is  he  able  to  take 
comfort  from  any  thing  in  himself  for 

*  Rom.  viii;  21,  and  Gal.  v;  1. 
t  Heb.  iii;  6. 
X  2  Cor.  v;  L 


99 

peace  with  God,  the  more  does  he  feel 
his  dependence  upon  the  perfect  merits 
of  Jesus  Christ.  Then  if  his  justifica- 
tion depend  for  its  perfectness  upon  any 
advanced  degree  of  personal  attainment 
in  grace,  as  the  more  he  grows  in  grace, 
the  less  will  he  think  of  his  attainment, 
and  the  more  will  he  count  himself  not 
to  "have  apprehended;"  so  the  less  will 
be  his  "confidence  and  rejoicing  of  hope 
unto  the  end."  But  "the  path  of  the 
just  is  as  the  shining  light  that  shineth 
more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day."  * 

Brethren,  we  must  be  careful  to  deliv- 
er fully  and  faithfully  "the  whole  coun- 
sel of  God"  as  well  in  regard  to  the 
privileges  of  his  people,  as  their  duties. 
The  Christian's  helmet  is  "the  hope  of 
salvation."  "The  joy  of  the  Lord  is  his 
strength."  He  runs  the  race  with  pa- 
tience by  "looking  unto  Jesus,"  the 
"jinisher"  as  well  as  "author  of  our 
faith."  His  alacrity  in  duty;  cheerful- 
ness in  trial ;  victory  over  the  world,  his 

*  Appendix;  C. 


100 

shield,  against  the  fiery  darts  of  the 
wicked,  are  in  his  "looking  for  and  hast- 
ing unto  the  glorious  appearing  of  the 
great  God  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ/ 
Our  sense  of  the  love  of  Christ  to  us,  in 
providing  a  salvation  so  perfect  and  joy- 
ful, " constraineth  us  to  live  unto  him." 
It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  minister  to  give 
to  the  people  of  God  their  "portion  in 
due  season"  of  the  quickening  encour- 
agements and  joyful  assurances  of  the 
Gospel.  Study,  Brethren,  to  attain  to 
"the  tongue  of  the  learned,"  to  know 
how  to  speak  to  all  states  of  mind  "a 
word  in  season;"  and  "the  Lord  give 
you  understanding  in  all  things." 

We  have  not  yet  directed  your  atten- 
tion particularly  to  the  nature  and  office 
of  Faith  in  the  sinner's  Justification. 
Our  remaining  time  is  very  brief,  but  we 
cannot  avoid  a  short  notice  of  one  point 
connected  with  that  subject,  as  requiring 
our  special  care. 

There  is  a  mode  of  representing  the 
office  of  faith,  which,  though  found,  not 


101 

unfrequently,  where  the  true  doctrine  of 
Justification,  in  other  respects,  is,  for  the 
most  part,  distinctly  preached,  we  are  far 
from  considering  as  involving  a  mere 
difference  of  expression.  We  refer  to 
the  representation  of  the  office  of  faith, 
as  if  it  were  efficacious  unto  Justification, 
not  as  a  single  act  of  the  soul,  by  which 
we  embrace  Christy  operating  merely  as 
the  appointed  instrument  of  participation 
in  his  righteousness  and  justifying  only 
because  it  lays  hold  on  that  righteous- 
ness; but  as  efficacious,  because  it  is 
i(the  root  of  all  Christian  virtues"  *  "the 
originating  principle  of  love  and  every 
good  work/'  and  thus,  in  root  and  branch, 
the  "complex  of  Christianity" 

If  this  representation  be  correct,  there 
is  no  propriety  in  saying  that  we  are  jus- 
tified by  faith,  which  there  would  not  be 

*  Romanist  writers  speak  of  a  "fides  formata"  or  formed 
faith  —  that  is  a  faith  clothed  in,  or  made  perfect  by,  all  the 
fruits  it  should  produce,  and  so  justifying  by  its  fruitfulness. 
They  6ay  that  when  the  Scriptures  speak  of  justification  by 
faith,  they  mean  a  faith  not  merely  icorking  by  love,  but 
formed  icilh  love,  and  availing  through  love,  and,  of  course, 
through  all  that  fulfilling  of  the  law,  of  which  iove  is  the 
parent  grace. 


102 

also  in  saying  that  we  are  justified  by 
"love,  joy,  peace,  long-suffering,"  &c.,  by 
all  those  virtues  of  godly  living  which 
are  "the  fruits  of  faith,"  and  which  "fol- 
low after  Justification." 

Now  that  the  word  faith  is  sometimes 
used  in  the  Scriptures  for  the  sum  of 
Christianity,  we  freely  grant ;  that  Justi- 
fying Faith  is  indeed  the  root  of  all 
christian  virtues,  so  that  they  "do  all 
spring  out  necessarily  of  a  true  and  lively 
faith,"  we  consider  a  most  necessary 
truth,  exceedingly  to  be  insisted  on  with 
every  soul  to  whom  the  Gospel  is 
preached.  But  that  faith  derives  any 
of  its  justifying  virtue  from  these  fruits, 
which  are  not  its  life,  but  its  evidences 
of  life,  we  hold  it  of  great  importance  to 
deny,  and  on  the  contrary,  to  maintain 
that,  though  working  by  love,  as  it  must 
if  living,  faith  is  effectual  for  justifica- 
tion, simply  as  an  act  of  embracing 
Christ,  in  all  his  offices,  and  benefits,  and 
requirements,  whereby  the  sinner  lays 
hold  of  his  promises  and  puts  on  the 


103 

garment  of  his  justifying  righteousness.* 
To  some  it  may  seem  that  the  differ- 
ence between  these  divergent  views  is 
too  slight  to  be  made  of  any  importance. 
We  apprehend,  however,  that  it  is  the 
point  of  divergency  where  lies  the  un- 
seen origin  of  those  very  errors  which 
have  for  their  legitimate  issue,  when  car- 
ried  out,  nothing  less  than  justification 
by  inherent,  and  therefore  by  our  own, 
righteousness. 

Two  ways  may  separate  at  so  small  an 
angle,  that  to  some  it  may  seem  of  little 
consequence  which  you  choose ;  and  for 
a  long  while,  you  may  go  on  in  one, 
without  being  very  far  separated  from 
the   other — but    still   they   are   getting 

*  "The  word  Faith  (says  Bishop  Sanderson)  first  and  most 
usually  in  the  Apostolic  writings,  is  used  to  signify  that 
Theological,  Virtue  or  gracious  habit  whereby  we  embrace, 
with  our  minds  and  affections,  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  the 
alone  Saviour  of  the  world,  casting  ourselves  wholly  upon 
tho  mercy  of  God  through  his  merits  for  remission,  and  ever- 
lasting salvation.  It  is  that  which  is  commonly  called  a 
lively  or  justifying  faith  :  whereunto  are  ascribed  in  Holy 
Writ,  those  many  gracious  effects  of  purifying  the  heart, 
adoption,  Spc. — not  as  to  their  proper  and  primary  cause- 
but  as  to  the  instrument  xchereby  ice  apprehend,  and  apply 
Christ,  whose  merits  and  Spirit  are  the  true  causes  of  all 
ihose  blessed  effects."     Sermons  :  fol.  p.  60, 


104 

wider  apart,  and  if  the  lines  be  carried 
out,  they  will  become  separated  by  the 
breadth  of  the  earth.  So  we  think  con- 
cerning the  divergency  above  described. 
These  two  views  of  faith  seem  to  begin 
their  separation  at  an  angle  scarcely 
measurable.  Many  an  eye  would  not 
detect  it.  But  the  angle  is  there  never- 
theless, and  the  minister,  though  he 
may  never  trouble  his  people  with  its 
measurement,  should  know  the  impor- 
tance of  accuracy  there,  and  govern  his 
views  and  language  accordingly.  Two 
minds,  taking  the  two  ways  from  this 
point,  may  long  continue  very  near  one 
another  in  doctrine,  and  spirit,  and  fel- 
lowship; and  because  the  tendencies  of 
the  way  that  leads  erroneously  may 
never  be  carried  out,  they  may  never  be 
parted  any  further  assunder.  But  evil 
tendencies  are  not  always  in  such  good 
hands.  Let  the  wrong  way  be  carried 
cut.  The  issue  will  be,  as  appeared  at 
the  Reformation,  and  as  now  appears  in 
the  true  Protestant  and  the  consistent 


105 

Romanist, — the  two  poles  of  doctrine, 
as  far  asunder  as  the  North  and  South, — 
Justification  by  the  righteousness  of  Christ 
imputed — Justification  by  our  own  right- 
eousness  inherent. 

It  behoves  us  to  provide  against  the 
beginnings  of  evil,  in  a  matter  of  such 
vital  importance  as  the  Justification  of 
the  sinner.  The  Reformers,  whether  in 
England,  or  the  continent,  were  very  far 
from  regarding  the  difference  alluded  to 
as  of  little  moment.*  A  very  special 
care  is  manifest  in  our  Articles  and 
Homilies  to  guard  well  this  easily  over- 
looked opening  for  the  introduction  of 
error,  as  one  which  though  of  little 
appearance  may  become  of  momentous 
consequence. 

First,  we  see  this  care  in  the  wording 
of  the  Article  on  Justification,  especially 
in  the  Latin  original.t 

The  Homily  referred  to,  by  the  Arti- 
cle itself,  for  fuller  explanation,  is  singu- 

*  Appendix;  D. 

t  See  Note  on  page  75. 


106 

larly  solicitous  of  precision  on  this  point. 
"It  is  all  one  sentence  (says  the  third 
Part  of  the  Homily  on  Salvation)  to  say, 
Faith  without  icorks,  and  Faith  only,  doth 
justify  us."  And  then,  that  we  may 
know  the  meaning  of  the  expression, 
faith  without  works ;  proceeds  the  Hom- 
ily, "Faith  doth  directly  send  us  to 
Christ  for  remission  of  sins;  and  by 
grace  given  us  of  God,  we  embrace  the 
promise  of  God's  mercy — which  thing 
none  other  of  our  virtues  or  icorks  perfectly 
cloth,  therefore  the  Scripture  useth  to  say 
that  faith  without  icorks  doth  justify" 
Again;  "Faith  doth  not  shut  out  repen- 
tance, hope,  love,  dread  and  the  fear  of 
God  to  be  joined  with  faith  in  every 
man  that  is  justified ;  but  it  shutteth  them 
out  from  the  office  of  justifying.  So  that 
although  they  be  all  present  together, 
yet  they  justify  not  altogether"  Again ; 
"The  true  understanding  of  the  doc- 
trine, we  be  justified  freely  by  faith 
without  works,  is  not  that  this  our  own 
act  to  believe  in  Christ,  or  this  our  faith 


107 

in  Christ  which  is  in  us,  doth  justify  us 
and  deserve  our  justification  unto  us — 
for  that  were  to  count  ourselves  to  be 
justified  by  some  act  or  virtue  that  is 
within  ourselves — but,  as  St.  John  the 
Baptist,  although  he  were  never  so  virtu- 
ous and  godly  a  man,  yet  in  this  matter 
of  forgiving  sin,  he  did  put  th^  people 
from  him  and  appointed  them  unto 
Christ,  saying — Behold,  yonder  is  the 
Lamb  of  God,  &c: —  even  so,  as  great 
and  as  godly  a  virtue  as  the  lively  faith 
is,  yet  it  putteth  us  from  itself  and  remit- 
teth  or  appointeth  us  unto  Christ.  So 
that  our  faith  in  Christ,  as  it  were,  saith 
unto  us :  It  is  not  I  that  take  away  your 
sins,  but  it  is  Christ  only;  and  to  him 
only  I  send  you  for  that  purpose,  forsa- 
king therein  all  your  good  virtues,  words, 
thoughts  and  works,  and  only  putting 
your  trust  in  Christ."  *  No  language 
could  more  forcibly  express  the  merely 
instrumental  office  of  faith  in  our  justifi- 
cation;   or  that  "by  faith  only"  is  not 

*  Homily  <m  Salvation;  P.  ii. 


108 

meant  a  faith  which  is  alone  in  respect  to 
the  connexion  and  company  of  good 
works,  as  its  fruits ;  but  alone,  in  res- 
pect to  them,  in  its  office  of  justifying  ; — 
a  faith  which  indeed  "worketh  by  love," 
and  is  followed  by  all  good  works,  as  of 
necessarry  production,  but,  makes  no 
use  of  any  of  them  in  aid  of  its  justify- 
ing efficacy ;  that  all  such  fruits  of  faith 
follow  after,  instead  of  co-operating  unto 
Justification ;  that  even  faith  justifies 
not,  under  its  character  as  a  work  of 
obedience,  one  of  the  fruits  of  the  spirit, 
but  simply  "under  that  relative  office  of 
receiving  and  applying  Christ, "  the 
hand  that  takes  of  the  righteousness  of 
Christ  and  appropriates  it  unto  us,  while 
laying  our  sins  on  the  head  of  that  won- 
derful sacrifice;  a  hand  without  price, 
without  desert,  a  sinful,  as  well  as  empty 
hand,  meriting  to  be  smitten  dead  for  its 
own  defects  and  the  sinfulness  of  him 
whose  hand  it  is,  while,  as  God's  appoint- 
ed means,  it  puts  on  Christ  and  clothes 
the  sinner  in  His  righteousness.     "  It  is  a 


109 

childish  objection  (says  Hooker)  where- 
with, in  the  matter  of  Justification,  men 
do  please  themselves,  exclaiming  that  we 
tread  all  christian  virtues  under  our  feet 
and  require  nothing  but  faith,  because 
we  teach  that  faith  alone  justifieth. 
Whereas  by  this  speech  we  never  meant 
to  exclude  either  hope  or  charity  from 
being  always  joined,  as  inseparable  mates 
with  faith  in  the  man  that  is  j  ustified ;  or 
works  as  being  added  as  necessary  duties, 
required  at  the  hands  of  every  justified 
man.  But  to  show,  that  faith  is  the  only 
Jiand,  which  jmtteth  on  Christ  for  justifi- 
cation; and  Christ  the  only  garment, 
which,  being  so  put  on,  covereth  the 
shame  of  our  polluted  natures."  "  Faith 
alone  justifies;  (says  Chillingworth)  but 
not  faith  which  is  alone." 

The  representation  of  Justifying  Faith 
by  the  figure  of  a  hand,  putting  on  the 
righteousness  of  Christ,  or  of  an  eye 
looking  unto  Christ  crucified,  as  the 
dying  Israelites  beheld  the  brazen  ser- 
pent,  is    exceedingly   common    in   our 


110 

ancient  divines.*  The  following  exam- 
ple will  suffice.  "  In  the  point  of  accep- 
tation (says  Usher)  God  hath  given  this 
poor  virtue  of  faith  a  name  above  all 
names.  Faith  indeed,  as  it  is  a  virtue,  is 
poor  and  mean,  and  comes  far  short  of 
love ;  and  therefore,  by  the  Apostle, 
love  is  many  degrees  preferred  before 
faith,  because  love  fills  the  heart;  but 
faith  is  but  a  bare  hand.  It  lets  all 
things  fall,  that  it  may  fill  itself  with 
Christ.  Nothing  is  required  but  a  bare 
empty  hand,  which  hath  nothing  to  bring 
with  it,  though  it  be  ever  so  weak,  yet  if 
it  have  a  hand  to  receive,  it  is  alike  pre- 
cious faith,  that  of  the  purest  believer,  and 
the  greatest  saint"  "The  well  is  deep 
and   this  is  the   bucket  with  which  we 

*  In  the  Catechism  called  King  Edward  the  Sixth,  faith  is 
the  hand  "which  only  taketh  hold  on  the  righteousness  that 
is  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  "  Cranmer  speaks  of  it  as  that  by  which 
we  are  " planted  in  Christ."  Rom.  vi ;  5.  With  Bishop 
Andrews,  it  sometimes  is  "the  eye  of  the  mind"  looking-  unto 
Jesus  on  the  cross  ;  elsewhere,  the  hand  xcith  ichich  xce  "  touch 
Christ"  as  the  woman  touched  his  garment,  or  by  which  we 
"take  hold  of  "  and  "apprehend"  Christ.  See  Bishop  An- 
drews' Sermons,  pp.  3  ;  222  and  4  ;  242  and  3  ;  367.  With 
Hooker,  the  same  expressions  are  notorious.  In  the  works 
of  Hall,  Usher,  Reynolds,  Davenant,  Hopkins,  and  Beveridge., 
they  are  very  common. 


Ill 

must  draw.      This  is  tJie  hand  by  which 
we  must  put  on  Christ"  * 

The  views  expressed,  in  such  authori- 
ties as  those  we  have  cited,  as  to  the 
instrumental  office  of  faith  in  Justifica- 
tion, are  derived  directly  from  those  por- 
tions of  Scripture  in  which  faith  is  spo- 
ken of  in  its  relations  to  Christ  as  he  is 
"made  unto  us  of  God — righteousness ;" 
or  as  he  is  "the  Lord  our  righteousness ; " 
such,  for  example,  as  those  passages  in 
which  the  sinner  is  represented  as  recei- 
ving Christ,  by  faith ;  t  and  those  in 
which  believing  in  him  is  used  synoni- 
mously  with  "coming"  unto  him,t  or  as 
a  taking  refuge  in  him,  or  fleeing  unto 

*  Usher's  Sermons,  No.  xii.  The  writer  knows  not  a 
better  answer  to  the  objection  that  Faith,  when  thus  distin- 
guished, to  the  exclusion  of  all  other  graces,  in  Justification, 
is  not  where  St.  Paul  places  it,  when  he  says  '■'■now  abidetU 
Faith,  Hope,  Love,  hut  the  greatest  of  these  is  Lore,"  than  the 
homely  language  of  good  old  Bishop  Latimer — "though 
love  be  the  chiefest,  yet  we  must  not  attribute  unto  her,  the 
office  which  pertaineth  unto  faith  only.  Like  as  I  cannot 
say,  'The  Mayor  of  Stamford  must  make  me  a  pair  of  shoes 
because  he  is  a  greater  man  than  the  shoemaker  is.'  For  the 
Mayor,  though  he  be  the  greater  man,  yet  it  is  not  his  office 
to  make  shoes :  so  though  love  he  greater,  yet  it  is  not  her  ojjic& 
to  save." 

t  Johnl:  12.     Col.  ii;  6. 

t   John  vi:  35. 


112 

him  for  refuge.*  More  especially  are 
such  views  sustained  by  the  sacrificial 
types  of  the  Mosaic  law,  as  in  the  stri- 
king of  the  blood  of  the  Paschal  lamb 
upon  the  door-posts  of  the  Israelites; 
confessedly  typical  of  the  application,  by 
faith,  of  the  blood  of  Christ  to  our  souls : 
also  in  the  manner  of  laying  the  sins  of 
the  people  on  the  scapegoat,  by  laying 
the  hand  on  the  head  of  the  animal  and 
making  confession  of  sin;  an  acknowl- 
edged and  most  conspicuous  type  of 
Christ  as  our  righteousness,  and  illustra- 
tion of  the  faith  by  which  we  are  made 
partakers  of  him.t 

But  the  remarkable  allusion  of  the 
Saviour  to  the  brazen  serpent  as  a  type 
of  his  own  lifting  up  on  the  cross  for  the 
sins  of  the  world,  most  undeniably 
teaches  that,  as  the  dying  Israelites  looked 
upon  that  sign,  lifted  up  on  high,  for  the 
remedy  of  their  wounds,  and  were  healed, 
because  they  looked:  So  the  perishing  sin- 

*  Heb.  vi;  11. 

t  See  Beveridge's  Sermons,  No.  69. 


113 

ner  is  to  partake  of  the  saving  mercies 
of  Christ  by  a  faith  that  shall  look  unto 
Him,  on  the  cross,  as  all  his  righteous- 
ness. Thus  faith  is  the  eye  that  "beholds 
the  Lamb  of  God" — as  well  as  the  hand 
that  "lays  hold  on  the  hope  set  before 
us."  This  figure  of  the  brazen  serpent 
is  more  frequently  employed  perhaps 
than  any  other,  by  our  ancient  divines, 
as  a  representation  of  faith,  and  is  very 
conspicuous  in  the  Homilies  of  our 
Church.* 

And  now,  my  dear  Brethren,  I  beg  to 
say  a  few  words,  in  conclusion,  concern- 
ing the  "fruits  of  faith  which  follow  after 
Justification,"  that  life  of  holy  obedience, 

*  See  it  well  carried  out  in  Bishop  Hooper  on  Justifica- 
tion. 

In  the  second  book  of  Homilies,  we  read:  "You  have 
heard  the  means  whereby  we  must  apply  the  fruits  and  mer- 
its of  Christ's  death  unto  us,  so  that  it  may  work  the  salva- 
tion of  our  souls:  namely,  a  sure,  steadfast  and  grounded 
faith.  For  as  all  they  who  beheld  steadfastly  the  brazen  ser- 
pent were  healed  and  delivered  at  the  very  sight  thereof- 
even  so,  all  they  which  behold  Christ  crucified  with  a  true 
and  lively  faith,  shall  undoubtedly  be  delivered  from  the 
grievous  wounds  of  the  soul,  be  they  never  so  deadly  or  so 
many  in  number."     Homily  on  the  Passion;  Part  ii. 

On  the  nature  and  office  of  Justifying  Faith,  see  Bishop 
Hopkins'  Works,    8vo.  vol.  ii,  p.  388.     Bishop  Reynolds' 
Works,  p.  184.     Bishop  Beveridge's  Sermons,  No.  134  and 
135.     Works  of  Thomas  Scott,  vol.  vii. 
8 


114 

without  which  we  can  no  more  see  the 
Lord,  than  we  could  see  Him  without  a 
living,  holy  faith. 

That  the  doctrine  of  Justification, 
which  we  have  delivered,  when  unre- 
servedly preached,  is  liable  to  be  abused 
by  those  who  are  ever  ready  to  draw 
encouragements  to  continuance  in  im- 
penitence, from  the  mercies  of  God, 
cannot  be  questioned.  "It  is  impossible 
to  preach  the  gospel,  but  that  a  carnal 
and  sinful  heart  may  wrest  it  so  as  to 
suck  poison,  instead  of  honey  from  it; 
such  being  apt  to  take  all  occasions  of 
turning  the  grace  of  God-  into  wanton- 
ness. And  therefore  the  Apostle  him- 
self, when  he  treated  upon  this  subject, 
even  our  Justification  by  faith  in  Christ, 
was  still  forced  to  prevent  this  object 
by  a  peremptory  denial  of  the  conse- 
quence." *  Precisely  the  evils  which  by 
many  are  supposed  to  result  from  the  un- 
reserved exhibition  of  this  doctrine,  were 
laid    to    the    charge    of   the   same,    as 

*  Beveridge's  Sermons;  134. 


115 

preached  by  St.  Paul.     He  denied  the 
charge,  but  not  the  doctrine.     He  de- 
nied that  the  accuser  had  rightly  inter- 
preted its  proper  inferences  and  effects ; 
but   persisted,   through  evil  report   and 
good,  in   preaching  still   the  same  doc- 
trine.    The  abuses  were  of  man's   cor- 
ruption;   the  doctrine  was  of  God's  wis- 
dom, and  grace,  and  holiness.     He  might 
as  well  have  ceased  to  declare  the  plen- 
teous goodness — the  wonderful  long-suf- 
fering— the  infinite  mercy  of  God:    For 
out  of  all  is   extracted,    by  the   subtle 
devices  of   human  depravity,   the  very 
poison  that  makes  men  sleep  so  securely 
in  their  sins.     But  while  we  must  faith- 
fully imitate  the  example  of  St.  Paul,  in 
suffering  no  consideration  to  prevent  us 
from  assigning  to  this  doctrine  a  most 
prominent  place  in  our  ministry,  as  em- 
phatically "the  word  of  reconciliation" 
which,  as  Ambassadors  of  Christ,  we  are 
to  proclaim  to  all  people ;  we  are  bound, 
like  St.  Paul,  to  see  to  it,  most  anxiously, 
not  onlv  that  it  be  so  delivered  as  to  be 


116 

as  much  as  possible  protected  from  mis- 
understandings and  perversions,  but  so 
also  that  it  may  be  productive,  through 
the  Spirit  of  Christ,  of  true  holiness  of 
heart  and  life  in  those  who  profess  to 
embrace  it.  We  must  take  care  that  in 
our  own  hearts,  in  all  our  words,  we  do 
manifestly  insist,  as  zealously,  and  with 
as  much  sense  of  necessity,  upon  per- 
sonal holiness,  to  make  us  "meet"  as 
upon  a  justifying  righteousness,  not  per- 
sonal, to  give  us  a  title,  "to  be  partakers 
with  the  saints  in  light."  Justification, 
by  faith  without  works,  is  no  more  to  be 
preached  than  sanctifi cation,  which  em- 
braces faith  and  all  good  works.  The 
righteousness  of  Christ,  imputed,  is  one 
part  of  salvation.  It  delivers  us  from 
the  condemnation  of  sin.  The  righteous- 
ness of  Christ,  dwelling  in  us,  by  His 
Spirit,  is  another,  and  equally  important 
part  of  our  salvation.  It  delivers  us 
from  the  dominion  of  sin.  "We  are  far 
from  that  libertinism  to  conclude,  that 
because  Christ  hath  obeyed  the  whole 


117 

law  for  us  therefore  we  are  exempted 
from  obedience.  He  hath  done  for  us 
whatever  was  required  in  order  to  merit 
and  satisfaction;  yet  he  hath  not  done 
for  us  whatever  was  required  in  order  to 
obedience  and  a  holy  conversation;  he 
hath  done  the  work  of  a  Mediator  and 
Redeemer;  yet  he  never  did  the  work 
of  a  sinner,  that  stood  in  need  of  a 
Redeemer,  so  as  to  excuse  him  from  it> 
And,  therefore,  though  men  may  be  jus- 
tified by  a  surety,  yet  they  cannot  be 
sanctified  by  a  surety ;  but  still  holiness, 
obedience,  and  good  works,  must  be 
personal  and  not  imputative."  *     Christ 

*  Bishop  Hopkins'  Works,  8  vo.,  vol.  11,  p.  394. 

"Although  it  hath  pleased  the  great  God,  of  his  infinite 
mercy,  in  the  covenant  of  grace,  to  entail  justification  upon 
our  faith  in  his  promises  only,  and  not  upon  obedience  to  his 
precepts,  as  he  had  in  the  covenant  of  works  entailed  it, 
upon  obedience  to  his  precepts  and  not  upon  faith  in  his 
promises  only  ;  yet  it  doth  not  follow  that  we  are  freed  more 
from  obedience  now,  than  we  were  before.  No:  but  as 
when  we  were  to  be  justified  by  our  works,  we  were  then 
bound  to  believe  as  well  as  to  obey,  though  we  were  to  be 
justified  by  our  obedience,  and  not  by  our  faith;  so  now  we 
are  to  be  justified  by  faith,  we  are  still  bound  to  obey  as  well 
as  to  believe,  though  we  are  justified  by  our  faith  only,  and 
not  by  our  obedience.  So  that  though  our  justification  doth 
pardon  the  sins  we  have  committed  heretofore,  yet  it  does 
not  give  us  liberty  to  commit  sin  hereafter.  No  :  but  now 
we  are  justified  by  faith  without  works,  we  are  bound  as 


118 

is  become  the  Author  of  eternal  salva- 
tion unto  all  them  that  obey  him''  His 
people  must  be  "a  peculiar  people, — a 
holy  nation, — purified  unto  himself — 
zealous  of  good  works."  St.  Paul 
preached  that  we  are  saved  "by  grace 
through  faith,  not  of  works"  but  not 
without  immediately  adding  that  we  are 
"created  in  Christ  Jesus  unto  good  works, 
which  God  hath  ordained  that  we  should 

much  to  obey,  as  if  we  were  justified  by  works  without  faith. 
And  the  reason  is,  because,  though  we  be  justified  by  faith 
only,  and  not  by  works,  yet  we  cannot  be  justified  by  such 
a  faith  as  is  without  works.  As  works  without  faith  cannot 
justify  us;  so  neither  can  faith  without  works;  not  because 
works  help  to  justify  us  with  foith,  but  because  faith  is  no 
justifying  faith  without  works;  or  rather  because  we  can 
have  no  such  true  and  lively  faith,  as  can  justify  us  without 
works,  but  we  shall  necessarily  also  have  works  accompany- 
ing our  faith.  Though  still  it  is  not  by  our  works  that 
accompany  our  faith,  but  our  faith  oniy  that  is  accompanied 
by  our  works,  that  we  are  accounted  righteous  before  God." — 
Bsveridge  on.  Article  xii. 

"If  faith  in  Christ  be  considered  a  reliance  on  him  for 
salvation  from  future  punishment,  without  heartily  seeking 
to  him  for  deliverance  from  sin  and  from  this  present  evil 
world,  or  falling  in  with  the  whole  design  of  his  coming  in 
the  flesh;  no  man  is  or  can  be  warranted  thus  to  believe  on 
him:  for  this  is  a  mere  selfish  desire,  and  presumptuous  con- 
fidence of  escaping  misery  and  ohtaining  happiness,  without 
the  least  real  understanding  of  the  nature,  or  value  for,  the 
blessings  of  that  holy  salvation  which  the  Scriptures  pro- 
pose to  us.  For  in  fact,  it  is  nothing  better  than  the  cry  of 
the  evil  spirits,  when  they  besought  Christ  not  to  torment 
them;  except  as  these  too  well  knew  God's  purposes  to  expect 
final  impunity." — Thos.  Scott's  Treatise  on  the  Warrant  and 
Nature  of  Faith. 


119 

walk  in  them."  "Herein,  (said  the 
Lord,)  is  my  Father  glorified  that  ye 
bring  forth  much  fruit,  so  shall  ye  be 
my  disciples." 

Brethren,  we  come  far  short  of  the 
spirit  of  our  ministry,  if  our  hearts  be 
not  intently  fixed  upon  the  promotion  of 
personal  holiness  in  the  lives  of  our  peo- 
ple ;  we  fail  entirely  in  the  effect  of  our 
ministry  if  our  doctrine  be  not  success- 
ful in  securing  it.  But  how  is  this 
blessed  result  to  be  secured?  How  shall 
we  preach  the  way  of  a  sinner's  Justifi- 
cation by  faith,  so  as  the  most  success- 
fully to  promote  in  him  "the  sanctifica- 
tion  of  the  Spirit  unto  obedience?" 

I  answer,  not  by  any  reserve,  on  the 
subject  of  Justification,  exhibiting  that 
doctrine  only  partially  and  fearfully,  in 
reduced  terms,  and  in  a  background 
position,  as  if  afraid  of  the  fulness  in 
which  the  Scriptures  declare  it  to  all 
who  read  or  hear  them.  Reserve  here, 
is  reserve  in  preaching  "Christ,  and  him 
crucified."     Our  grand  message,    every 


120 

where,  is: — "Be  it  known  unto  you, 
men  and  brethren,  that  through  this 
man  is  preached  unto  you  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin:  and  by  him  all  that  be- 
lieve are  justified  from  all  things  from 
which  they  could  not  be  justified  by  the 
law  of  Moses."  *  St.  Paul  waited  not 
till  men  were  well  initiated  into  christian 
mysteries,  before  he  unveiled  the  grand 
subject  of  atonement  and  justification 
through  the  blood  of  Christ.  No — the 
gospel  plan  of  promoting  sanctification 
is  just  the  opposite  of  holding  in  obscu- 
rity any  feature  of  the  doctrine  of  Justi- 
fication. It  is  simply  to  preach  that 
doctrine  most  fully,  in  all  its  principles 
and  connexions ;  in  all  its  grace,  and  all 
its  works;  in  its  utmost  plainness  and 
simplicity ;  so  that  whatever  leads  to  it, 
whatever  is  contained  in  it,  and  whatever 
legitimately  results  from  it,  whether  it 
be  sin  and  condemnation,  as  needing  an 
imputed  righteousness ;  the  love  of  God, 
as   providing   that  righteousness   in   his 

*  Acts,  xiii. 


121 

only  begotten  Son ;  the  blessed  Redeem- 
er, as  offering  up  himself  a  sacrifice  to 
obtain  it;  faith,  as  embracing  it  freely; 
hope,  as  resting  upon  it  joyfully;  the 
promises,  as  assuring  the  believer  per- 
fectly; the  sacraments,  as  signing  and 
sealing  them  effectually  to  those  who 
duly  receive  them;  a  new  heart,  as  the 
essential  companion  of  a  living  faith; 
unreserved  obedience,  as  the  necessary 
expression  of  a  new  heart;  obedience 
springing  from  the  love  of  God,  in 
Christ;  keeping  its  eye  of  faith,  tor 
motive,  strength  and  acceptance,  upon 
the  cross,  and  embracing  in  its  walk,  all 
departments  of  duty;  all  this,  as  coming 
legitimately  within  the  embrace  of  the 
full  preaching  of  Justification  by  faith,  is 
the  way  to  promote,  through  the  effec- 
tual working  of  the  Spirit  of  God  upon 
the  conscience  and  heart  of  the  sinner, 
his  sanctification  through  the  truth. 

We  cannot  preach  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  for  Justification,  with  any  pro- 
priety, unless,  as  the  first  thing,  to  show 


122 

the  sinner's  need  thereof,  we  preach  the 
righteousness  of  the  law  in  the  condem- 
nation of  every  soul  that  sinneth.  No 
more  can  we  preach  the  righteousness  of 
Christ,  for  justification,  with  any  justice, 
unless,  beside  its  need  and  nature,  we 
preach  its  fruits,  and  trace  them  out  in 
all  their  branches,  and  show  how  they  all 
spring  out  only  and  necessarily  of  a  true 
and  lively  faith.  Thus  does  the  doctrine 
of  faith  embrace,  in  one  hand,  the  right- 
eousness of  the  law  in  the  condemnation 
of  the  sinner,  bringing  him  to  Christ 
that  he  may  be  justified  by  faith,"  and 
in  the  other,  that  same  righteousness,  in 
the  sanctification  of  the  believer,  wit- 
nessing that  he  is  in  Christ,  and  is  justi- 
fied by  faith. 

Does  St.  Paul  describe  the  blessedness 
of  those  "who  are  in  Christ  Jesus" — 
witnessing  that  "to  them  there  is  no 
condemnation?"  He  adds  immediately 
—  "who  walk  not  after  t/ie  flesh,  but  after 
the  spirit"  thus  insisting  on  the  essential 
connexion  between  a  justifying  faith  and 


123 

a  spiritual  lite.  Let  this  text  be  carried 
out  by  the  preacher.  Let  him  show 
how  Christ,  if  ever  "made  unto  us,  of 
God,  by  imputation,  righteousness"  must 
also  be  made  unto  us,  by  the  indwelling 
of  His  Spirit,  sanctiftcation ;  both  equal- 
ly, though  differently,  necessary  for  final 
redemption ;  both  equally,  though  differ- 
ently, derived  from  Christ,  through  his 
obedience  unto  death ;  both  obtained  by 
the  same  faith,  at  the  same  time;  dis- 
tinct in  office,  but,  like  the  water  and 
the  blood  from  the  side  of  the  Lamb  of 
God,  inseparable ;  so  that  by  the  blessed 
union  of  justification  and  holiness,  peace 
and  purity,  in  all  the  way  of  the  believer, 
he  may  be  complete  in  Christ.  Let  the 
preacher  dwell  minutely  upon  the  clevel- 
opnents,  as  well  as  the  principle,  of 
personal  sanctifi cation.  The  planting  of 
the  root  of  faith  does  not  supersede  the 
necessity  of  training  and  pruning  the 
branches  of  obedience.  It  follows  not 
in  this  husbandry,  any  more  than  in  any 
other,   that   if   the   root  be   good,    the 


124 

branches  will  all  take,  of  themselves,  pre- 
cisely the  right  direction.  We  must 
copy  the  ministry  of  the  Apostles  in  the 
minute  tracing  out  of  the  fruits  of  faith 
in  all  the  ways  of  holy  living — in  the 
affections,  desires,  tempers,  habits,  con- 
versation, and  all  relative  duties.*  To 
expect  the  issues  of  life  without  seeing 
to  the  indwelling  of  the  principle  of  life, 
is  an  error  only  next  worse  to  that  of 
being  content  with  the  latter,  without 
attending  carefully  to  all  its  processes  in 
the  former.  Parental  care  is  not  satisfied 
when  the  child  is  evidently  governed  by 
a  filial  love.  It  brings  line,  upon  line,  to 
guide,  instruct,  admonish,  remind,  and 
exhort  that  love.  So  is  "the  nurture 
and  admonition "  by  which  the  minister 
must  seek  to  lead  out  the  great  principle 
of  "faith  that  worketh  by  love" — bring- 
ing the  various  and  minute  applications 
of  that  love,  "seasonably  to  the  remem- 
brance" of  the  believer,  holding  up  con- 

*  See  examples  in  Rom.  xii  and  xiii;  1  Cor.  xiii;  Eph.  v 
and  vi;  Phil,  iv;  Col.  iii;  I  Thess.  iv  and  v;  1  Tim.  v  and 
vi;  Heb.  xii  and  xiii;  James,  passim.  &c. 


125 

tinually  to  an  eye,  prone  to  dullness,  and 
a  heart,  prone  to  negligence,  the  law; 
the  precept  of  holiness,  "as  it  is  in 
Jesus,"  commended  by  his  authority, 
illustrated  in  his  example,  expounded  in 
his  word,  enforced  by  his  love,  and  ful- 
filled in  us  by  the  indwelling  of  His 
Spirit.  If  we  have  it  not  to  urge,  as  a 
motive  to  obedience,  that  it  will  obtain  or 
promote  the  sinner's  justification,  what 
matters  it?  We  have  it  to  urge,  that 
without  obedience,  there  can  be  neither 
the  living  faith  that  justifies,  nor  the  true 
holiness  that  makes  us  meet  for  the  pres- 
ence of  God;  we  have  the  duty  also,  as 
well  as  the  necessity  of  unreserved  obe- 
dience, to  urge  upon  the  heart  and  con- 
science, with  just  as  much  authority  as  if 
works,  instead  of  faith,  were  the  only 
way  of  Justification ;  we  have  more ;  we 
have  also  the  love  of  God  in  Christ,  pre- 
paring for  our  ruined  souls,  his  only 
begotten  Son  to  be  the  sacrifice  for  our 
sins,  and  the  amazing  love  of  Christ, 
bringing  him  to  be  obedient  unto  the 


126 

death  of  the  cross  for  us  miserable  sin- 
ners. And  thence,  from  his  agony  and 
bloody  sweat,  his  cross  and  passion, 
springs  the  constraining  motive  to  a  dili- 
gent, devoted,  cheerful,  filial,  zealous 
obedience,  in  all  things.  "The  love  of 
Christ  constraineth  us,"  said  Christians 
of  old,  "because  we  thus  judge  that  if 
one  died  for  all,  then  were  all  dead,  and 
that  he  died  for  all,  that  they  which  live 
should  live  not  unto  themselves,  but  unto 
Him  that  died  for  them  and  rose  again."  * 
Here  is  love  fulfilling  the  law,  banishing 
the  living  unto  ourselves;  substituting 
devotedness  to  Christ ;  discerning  its 
conclusive  reason,  obtaining  its  all-pow- 
erful motive  by  the  eye  of  faith  which 
beholds  the  love  of  Christ  dying  for  the 
ungodly,  and  thence  begins  immediately 
to  work  by  love,  and  keep  his  command- 
ments. 

Such  is  the  inseparable  connection  be- 
tween the  faith  which  looks  unto  Jesus 
and  justifies  the  soul,  through  a  right- 

*  2  Cor.  v;  14,  15. 


127 

ousness  imputed,  and  the  love  that  equal- 
ly looks  unto  Jesus  and  bears  witness  to 
the  living  power  of  that  faith  and  glori- 
fies God,  by  a  righteousness,  personal  and 
inherent,  doing  whatsoever  he  hath  com- 
manded.* 

And,  now,  my  beloved  Brethren,  see- 
ing what  infinitely  momentous  truth  is 
entrusted  to  our  stewardship ;  what  emi- 
nent wisdom,  and  faithfulness,  and  care- 
fulness, are  necessary  that  we  may  be 
"good  stewards  of  the  manifold  grace  of 
God,"  and  how  utterly  impossible  it  is 
that,  by  our  own  strength  or  guidance, 
we  should  fulfil  our  solemn  charge;  let 
us  most  diligently  study,  most  carefully 
watch,  most  earnestly  strive,  and  most 
fervently  pray  that,  as  wise  master-build- 
ers, we  may  be  enabled  through  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  "working  in  us  mightily," 
to  make  full  proof  our  ministry,  to  the 
edification  of  the  Church,  the  saving  of 
souls,  and  the  glory  of  God. — Amen. 

*  See  Treatises  by  Thos.  Scott,  on  Repentance,  the  Na- 
ture and  Office  of  Faith,  and  Growth  in  Grace,  (Works,  vol. 
vii,)  for  an  edifying  discussion  of  these  subjects. 


APPENDIX 


A  Mitigated  Law — page  58. 

There  is  a  scheme  which  maintains  that  instead 
of  the  old  law,  which  required  perfect  obedience, 
the  gospel  has  put  us  under  a  new  law,  which  only 
requires  a  sincere,  though  imperfect  obedience,  in 
accommodation  to  our  infirmities;  and  that  Christ 
died  to  atone  for  the  imperfections jDf  such  obedi- 
ence, that  it  might  be  accepted  as  if  it  were  perfect. 
But  we  would  ask,  what  kind  of  a  law  is  that 
which  does  not  require  obedience  to  all  its  require- 
ments ?  If  any  part  is  not  required  to  be  kept,  is 
that  properly  law?  Can  any  one  define  how  far 
that  new  law  requires  obedience,  and  how  much  of 
it  need  not  be  obeyed?  Or  is  the  measure  of  im- 
perfection left  for  each  of  us  to  fix  according  to  his 
own  bias  and  wisdom?  But  again:  If  Christ  died 
to  atone  for  the  imperfections  of  our  obedience, 
what  law  have  these  imperfections  violated,  for 
"sin  is  the  transgression  of  law'V  They  cannot 
have  violated  this  new  law,  for  that  only  requires  an 
imperfect  obedience;  and  the  old  law  they  cannot 
have  broken,  for  that,  according  to  this  scheme,  is 
abrogated.  And  if  these  imperfections  have  vio- 
9 


130 

lated  no  law,  old  or  new,  how  are  they  sinful,  how 
are  they  imperfections,  how  do  they  need  the  atone- 
ment of  Christ?  It  is  maintained  that  the  old  law 
was  abrogated  because  it  would  be  unjust  to  require 
of  us  what,  in  our  present,  fallen  state,  we  have 
no  ability  to  fulfil;  and  that  Christ  died  to  satisfy 
the  law,  so  that  we  being  delivered  from  its  obliga- 
tions, might  be  placed  under  another,  adapted  to  our 
infirmities,  which  should  require  only  imperfect 
obedience.  Then  again  we  ask  why  should  Christ 
die  that  we  might  come  under  the  new  law,  when, 
according  to  the  above  view,  it  would  have  been 
unjust  to  require  obedience  to  the  old  and  stricter 
law?  Why  must  the  Saviour  die  that  we  might 
not  be  bound  to  a  law,  to  which  it  would  be  injus- 
tice to  hold  us,  whether  he  died  or  not?  How  dif- 
ferent all  this  from  the  doctrine  of  our  Homilies  — 
which  represent  all  men  as  bound  to  the  fulfilment 
of  the  whole  of  God's  Law;  as  incapable  of  justifi- 
cation by  their  own  works,  because  they  have  all 
broken  that  Law;  (how  break  it  if  not  under  it?) 
that  Christ  has  "paid  their  ransom  by  his  death, 
and  for  them  fulfilled  the  law  in  his  life,  so  that 
now,  in  him,  and  by  him,  every  true  Christian 
man  may  be  called  a  fill  filler  of  the  Law." —  Hom- 
ily of  Salvation,  P.  1. 

The  writer  would  take  this  opportunity  of  com- 
mending, to  the  studious  reader,  Bishop  Reynolds1 
Treatises  on  Sin;  on  the  Law;  on  the  Life  of  Christ ; 
(in  the  soul  of  the  believer)  Bishop  Hopkins'  Dis- 
courses on  the  Law,  and  on  the  Doctrine  of  the 


131 


Two  Covenants;  and  Simeon  on  the  Law  and  the 
Gospel. 

Since  the  subject  of  the  above  remarks  is  so 
evidently  important  to  clear  views  of  Justification, 
the  writer  would  request  particular  attention  to 
the  following  passages  from  Bishops  Beveridge 
and  Hopkins,  two  great  contemporaneous  lights  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Bishop  Beveridge — "I  cannot  lock  upon  Christ 
as  having  made  full  satisfaction  to  God?s  Justice 
for  me,  unless  he  had  performed  the  obedience  I 
owe  to  God's  laws,  as  well  as  borne  the  punish- 
ment that  is  due  to  my  sins;  for  though  he  should 
have  borne  my  sins,  I  cannot  see  how  that  could 
denominate  me  righteous  or  obedient  to  the  law, 
so  as  to  entitle  me  to  eternal  life,  according  to  the 
old  law  —  "Do  this  and  live'1'' — which  old  cove- 
nant is  not  disannulled  or  abrogated  by  the  covenant 
of  grace,  but  rather  established,  Romans  iii,  31, 
especially  as  to  the  obedience  it  requires  from  us 
in  order  to  the  life  it  promiseth;  otherwise  the 
laws  of  God  would  be  mutable,  and  so  come  short 
of  the  laws  of  the  very  Medes  and  Persians,  v/hich 
altered  not.  Obedience,  therefore,  is  as  strictly  re- 
quired under  the  New,  as  it  was  under  the  Old  Tes- 
tament; but  with  this  difference;  —  there,  obedience 
in  our  own  persons  was  required,  as  absolutely  ne- 
cessary; here  obedience  in  our  Surety  is  accepted 
as  completely  sufficient." — Private  Thoughts,  Art. 
viii. 

Bishop  Hopkins  —  "If  it  be  objected   that   th© 


132 

Rule  of  our  Righteousness  is  not  the  Law  of 
Works,  but  the  Law  of  Faith:  that  the  Covenant 
of  Works  is  abolished,  and  that  of  Grace  succeeds 
in  the  place  thereof,  which  requires  faith,  repen- 
tance, and  sincere  obedience,  as  the  conditions  of 
our  justification;  and  that  these  arc  now  the  Right- 
eousness by  which  we  are  justified;  I  answer: 

"  That  the  Covenant  of  Works  is  only  so  far  forth 
repealed  and  abrogated,  as  it  did  require  a  Personal 
Righteousness  to  our  Justification;  but  it  is  not  re- 
pealed, as  it  did  require  a  Perfect  Righteousness. 

"God  did  never  so  far  disannul  the  Covenant  of 
Works,  that,  whether  or  no,  his  Law  were  obeyed, 
or  his  Justice  satisfied,  yet  we  should  be  accounted 
righteous:  but,  it  is  only  thus  far  repealed  by  the 
Covenant  of  Grace,  that,  though  we  cannot  per- 
fectly obey  nor  fully  satisfy  in  our  own  persons, 
yet  we  may  be  pardoned  and  accepted  through 
the  satisfaction  and  obedience  of  our  Surety.  So 
that,  even  now,  under  the  Covenant  of  Grace,  no 
righteousness  can  avail  to  our  Justification,  but 
what,  for  the  matter  of  it,  is  perfectly  conformable 
to  the  Law  of  Works.  And,  when  we  say  that 
the  Covenant  of  Works  is  abrogated,  and  that  we 
are  not  to  expect  Justification  according  to  that 
Covenant,  the  meaning  is  not,  that  the  matter  of 
that  covenant  is  repealed,  but  only  the  personal 
obligation  relaxed:  for,  still,  it  is  the  righteousness 
of  the  Law  which  justifies  us,  though  performed 
by  another.  And,  therefore,  in  this  sense,  whoso- 
ever are  justified,  it  is  according  to  the  Covenant 


133 

of  works:  that  is,  it  is  by  that  righteousness, 
which  for  the  substance  and  matter  of  it,  this 
covenant  did  require. 

"For  the  proof  of  this,  which  is  of  very  great 
moment  for  the  clearing  the  doctrine  of  Justifica- 
tion, consider, 

"  1.  That  there  can  be  no  sufficient  reason  given 
why  our  Saviour  should  suffer  the  penalty,  who 
never  transgressed  the  precepts  of  the  Law,  unless 
it  be  that  his  sufferings  might  be  our  satisfaction. 

"Consequently,  if  Christ  died  for  us,  only  to 
satisfy  divine  justice  in  our  stead,  and  as  our 
Surety,  it  must  necessarily  follow,  that  this  his 
death  is  our  righteousness  of  Satisfaction,  accor- 
ding to  the  Law  and  Covenant  of  Works. 

"2.  That  Law,  according  to  the  letter  of  which 
the  far  greater  part  of  the  world  shall  be  judged^ 
cannot  be  an  abrogated,  a  repealed  law. 

"But,  though  true  believers  shall  indeed  be 
judged  only  according  to  the  favourable  construc- 
tion of  the  Law  of  Works,  which  is  the  accepting 
the  righteousness  of  their  Surety  for  their  own; 
yet  all  the  rest  of  the  world  (and  how  vast  a  num- 
ber is  it!)  shall  be  juged  according  to  the  strict  let- 
ter of  the  Covenant  of  Works,  and  must  either 
stand  or  fall,  according  to  the  sentence  of  it:  they 
must  either  produce  a  perfect  sinless  righteous- 
ness, wrought  out  personally  by  themselves;  or 
else  suffer  the  vengeance  of  eternal  death.  Indeed, 
all  men,  at  the  Last  Day,  shall  be  judged  by  the 
Covenant  af  Works:  and,  when  they  shall  stand 


134 

before  the  tribunal  of  God,  this  Law  will  be  then 
produced,  and  every  man's  title  tried  by  it;  and 
whoever  cannot  plead  a  righteousness  conformable 
to  the  tenor  and  import  of  it,  must  expect  nothing 
else  but  the  execution  of  the  punishment  threat- 
ened. The  righteousness  of  Christ  will  be  the 
believer's  plea;  and  accepted,  because  it  fully  an- 
swers the  matter  of  the  Law.  The  rest  of  the 
world  can  produce  no  righteousness  of  their  own, 
for  all  have  sinned;  nor  can  they  plead  this  of 
Christ,  because  they  have  no  faith,  which  alone 
can  give  this  title  and  convey  it  to  them:  so  that 
their  case  is  desperate,  their  doom  certain,  and 
their  punishment  remediless  and  insupportable; 
and  this,  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  Covenant 
of  Works,  Bo  this  or  Suffer  this,  by  which  God 
will  proceed  in  judging  of  the  world. 

"Consider,  again, 

"  3.  That  the  matter  and  substance  of  the  Cove- 
nant of  Works  is  nothing  else  but  the  Moral  Law, 
(as  I  shewed  before)  the  law  of  holiness  and  obe- 
dience: the  obligation  of  which  continues  still 
upon  us;  and  the  least  transgression  of  which  is 
threatened  with  death  and  condemnation. 

"  'What,  then,  doth  God  speak  contradictions? 
and,  in  the  law  of  Works,  tell  us  he  will  punish 
every  transgressor;  and,  in  the  Law  of  Faith,  tell 
us  he  will  not  punish  every  transgressor?'  No, 
certainly;  his  truth  and  his  justice  are  immutable; 
and,  what  he  has  once  spoken  with  his  mouth,  he 
will  fulfil   with   his    hand.     And  his   veracity  is 


135 

obliged  to  punish  every  offender;  for  God  can  be 
no  more  false  in  his-  threatenings,  than  in  his 
promises:  and,  therefore,  he  punisheth  those 
whom  he  pardons,  or  else  he  could  not  pardon. 
He  pardons  their  Persons,  according  to  his  Cove- 
nant of  Grace:  he  punisheth  their  Surety,  accord- 
ing to  his  Covenant  of  Works:  which,  in  a  foren- 
sic sense,  being  the  punishment  of  them,  they 
have  in  him  made  a  satisfaction  to  the  justice  of 
God,  and  thereby  have  obtained  a  righteousness 
according  to  the  terms  of  the  Covenant  of  Works. 
"I  have  the  longer  insisted  on  this  Sixth  Posi- 
tion, because  it  is  the  very  critical  point  of  the 
doctrine  of  Justification,  and  the  very  hinge  upon 
which  all  the  controversies  concerning  it  do  turn." 
—  Works,  vol  i\,pp.  317,-320. 


B. 

Imputed  Righteousness — page  84. 

The  sense  in  which  Imputation  of  Righteous- 
ness is  held  in  the  Articles  and  Homilies,  and  by  a 
glorious  company  of  learned  and  godly  divines,  of 
our  Church,  is  simply  that  of  setting  down  to  the 
personal  account  of  the  believing  sinner,  zoho  has 
no  righteousness  of  his  own  to  plead,  before  his 
Judge,  all  that  Christ,  as  his  Surely,  has  done  and 
suffered  in  his  stead.  It  is  the  setting  down,  or 
accounting,  of  righteousness  to  the  believer,  in 
reference  to  the  charge  of  guilt  before  God,  as 


136 

Judge;  and  has  no  reference  to  the  making  of  the 
believer  personally  holy.  It  constitutes  the  belie- 
ver forensically  righteous  —  so  that  there  remains 
no  condemnation  for  him;  it  does  not  make  him 
personally  righteous,  so  that  the  law  has  no  claim 
upon  his  strict  obedience.  In  what  respect  tho 
righteousness  of  Christ  is  imputed  to  us,  appears, 
from  considering  in  what  respect  our  sin  was  im- 
puted to  Christ.  The  sense  of  the  Church  is  thus 
explained  by  Bishop  Beveridge  on  the  eleventh 
Article;  where,  having  quoted  the  text  which 
speaks  of  Christ  as  having  been  "made  sin  for  us, 
tJiat  we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in 
him"  (2  Cor.  v,  21)  he  says:  "How  was  Christ 
made  sin  for  us?  Not  by  our  sins  inherent  in  him, 
that  is  horrid  blasphemy;  but  by  our  sins  imputed 
to  him,  that  is  true  divinity.  And  as  he  was  made 
sin  for  us,  not  by  the  inhesion  of  our  sins  in  him, 
but  by  the  imputation  of  our  sins  to  him;  so  we 
are  made  the  righteousness  of  God  in  him,  by  the 
imputation  of  his  righteousness  to  us,  not  by  the 
inhesion  of  his  righteousness  in  us.  He  was  ac- 
counted as  a  sinner,  and  therefore  punished  for  us; 
we  are  accounted  as  righteous,  and  therefore  glo- 
rified in  him.  He  was  accounted  as  a  sinner,  for 
us,  and  therefore  he  was  condemned,  we  are  ac- 
counted as  righteous  in  him;  and  so  we  are  justi- 
fied. And  this  is  the  right  notion  of  justification, 
as  distinguished  from  sanctification.  Not  as  if 
these  two  were  ever  severed  or  divided  in  their 
subjects;    no,  every  one  that  is    justified  is   also 


137 

sanctified;  and  every  one  that  is  sanctified,  is  also 
justified.  But  yet,  the  acts  of  sanctification  and 
justification  are  two  distinct  things;  for  the  one 
denotes  the  imputation  of  righteousness  to  us:  the 
other,  the  implantation  of  righteousness  in  us. 
And,  therefore,  though  they  be  both  the  acts  of 
God;  yet  the  one  is  the  act  of  God,  towards  us;  the 
other  is  the  act  of  God  in  us.  By  our  sanctifica- 
tion, we  are  made  righteous  in  ourselves,  but  not 
accounted  righteous  by  God;  by  our  justification 
we  are  accounted  righteous  by  God,  but  not  made 
righteous  in  ourselves," — Beveridge  on  the  Articles. 
It  is  very  common,  in  our  old  divines,  to  refer  to 
the  case  of  Onesimus,  in  the  Epistle  to  Philemon, 
v.  13,  as  an  apt  illustration  of  the  doctrine  of  im- 
putation. Thus,  Archbishop  Usher:  "Account:  the 
word  is  used  in  the  Epistle  to  Philemon,  where  St. 
Paul  saith,  'If  he  hath  wronged  thee,  or  oweth  thee 
ought,  put  that  on  mine  account.'  A  man's  sin 
being  thus  put  on  Christ's  account,  he  is  accepted 
of  God,  as  freely  as  if  he  had  never  offended  him. 
Now,  this  is  done,  by  transferring  the  debt  from 
one  person  to  another;  so  that  we  see  this  impu- 
tation of  sin  to  Christ,  and  of  Christ's  righteous- 
ness to  us  is  most  necessary.  It  must  be  so:  and 
if  there  were  no  testimony  for  it  in  Scripture,  yet 
reason  showeth  that  there  can  be  no  righteousness, 
but  by  God's  acceptation  of  us,  in  Christ,  as  if  we 
had  never  sinned."  Here  is  a  transfer,  not  of  the 
debt  of  future  obedience,  on  the  part  of  Onesimus, 
to  his  master,  Philemon;  but  of  the  debt  of  punish- 


138 

mejit  or  satisfaction,  for  past  disobedience.  Thus, 
Imputation  of  Righteousness,  from  Christ  to  the 
sinner,  and  the  transfer  of  our  account  of  guilt,  and 
debt  of  satisfaction  to  him,  for  past  disobedience? 
in  no  sense  involves  the  transfer  of  our  debt  of 
obedience  for  the  future;  a  duty  which  remains  as 
perfect,  as  if  no  Redemption  had  been  provided,  or 
as  if  our  future  justification  depended  exclusively 
upon  sinless  obedience. 

The  author  reserves,  for  another  opportunity, 
the  presentation  of  a  catena  Patrum,  or  catenation 
of  the  concurrent  opinions  of  the  standard  writers 
of  the  English  Church,  and  perhaps  he  will  add 
those  of  Fathers  more  ancient,  in  reference  to  the 
subject  of  imputed  righteousness.  For  the  present? 
as  the  name  of  the  learned  and  holy  Bishop  An- 
drews is  professedly  of  great  weight  in  the  recent 
school  of  Oxford  divinity,  whose  chief  writers 
reject  with  loathing,  the  doctrine  of  Justification 
by  reputed  righteousness  only,  as  it  is  presented 
in  the  Charge,  from  Hooker,  Usher,  .Hall,  &c,  and 
above,  from  Be ve ridge;  calling  it,  precisely  as  do 
Socinians,  on  one  side,  and  Papists  on  the  other,  a 
"visionary,  arbitrary,  tyranical  system,"  "an  un- 
real righteousness,  and  a  real  corruption,-'  "a  bond- 
age to  shadows,"  a  "feeding  on  shells  and  husks,'' 
"a  new  gospel,"*  a  system  to  which  Mr.  Newman, 
whose  words  we  have  thus  quoted,  says,  "Away 
with  it!"  just  as  the  Church  of  Rome  pronounces 
"anathema"  upon  it,  and  as  Socinus  branded  it  as 
*  Newman's  Lectures  on  Justification,  p.  61. 


139 

fceda,  execranda,  perniliosa,  dclestanda;  the  author 
will  content  himself  with  exhibiting  here  the  doc- 
trine of  Bishop  Andrews. 

"In  the  Scripture,  there  is  a  double  Righteous- 
ness set  down,  both  in  the  Old  and  in  the  New 
Testament.  In  the  Old,  and  in  the  very  first 
place  that  Righteousness  is  named  in  the  Bible: 
'Abraham  believed,  and  it  was  accounted  unto  him 
for  righteousness.'  A  Righteousness  accounted! 
And  again,  (in  the  very  next  line)  it  is  mentioned, 
'Abraham  will  teach  his  house  to  do  Righteousness? 
A  righteousness  done!  In  the  New  Testament, 
likewise.  The  former,  in  one  chapter,  (Rom.  iv) 
no  fewer  than  eleven  times;  Reputatum  est  illi  ad 
justiliam — lIt  is  accounted  to  him  for  righteousness1 

—  a  Reputed  Righteousness!  The  latter  in  St. 
John  —  'He  that  doeih  righteousness,  is  righteous' 

—  'a  Righteousness  done!  Of  these,  the  latter, 
Philosophers  themselves  conceived,  and  acknowl- 
edged; the  other  is  proper  to  Christians  only,  and 
altogether  unknown  in  Philosophy.  The  one  is  a 
quality  of  the  party.  The  other  an  act  of  the 
Judge  declaring  or  pronouncing  righteous.  The 
one,  ours  by  influence  or  infusion;  the  other,  by 
account,  or  imputation.  That  both  these  there  are, 
there  is  no  question."  We  see,  then,  that  among 
Protestants,  there  was  no  division  of  opinion  on 
the  reality  of  imputed  righteousness,  in  the  times  of 
Bishop  Andrews.  Papists  and  Socinians  cast  out 
the  name  as  evil  —  and  so  do  Oxford  divines  now  — 
but  then  it  was  the  via  media,  the  dividing  ridge. 


140 

between  the  two  valleys  of  the  shadow  of  death  — 
the  one,  the  Popish  doctrine  of  justification  by  in- 
fused righteousness,  or  sanctification,  the  other,  the 
Socinian,  of  salvation  by  repentance  without  any 
justification  through  the  merits  of  Christ. 

But  Bishop  Andrews  proceeds  —  He  is  upon  the 
blessed  name  of  Jesus  —  "  Jehovah  our  Righteous- 
ness"—  and  he  says  the  question  is,  "whether  of 
these  two  righteousnesses,  the  Prophet  principally 
meaneth  in  this  name  —  whether,  (he  says,)  it  is  the 
righteousness  that  will  stand  against  the  Laic,  or 
conscience,  Satan,  sin,  the  gates  of  Hell,  and  the 
power  of  darkness;  and  so  stand,  that  we  may  be 
delivered  by  it,  from  death,  despair  and  damna- 
tion; and  entitled,  by  it,  to  life,  salvation,  and  hap- 
piness eternal;  that  is  righteousness  indeed;  that 
is  it  we  seek  for,  if  we  may  find  it;  and  that  is  not 
this  latter,  (Righteousness  infused)  but  the  former 
only,  (Righteousness  imputed *)  and  therefore  this 
is  the  true  interpretation  of  i  Jehovah  our  Right- 
eousness.^ "  "Our  righteousness  in  the  Abstract, 
and  not  in  the  Concrete;  our  Righteousness  itself  not 
the  Maker  of  us  Righteous.  He  is  made  unto  us,  by 
God,  very  righteousness  itself.  What  can  be  further 
said?  To  have  him  ours,  not  to  make  us  Righteous, 
but  to  make  us  Righteousness,  and  that,  not  any 
other  but  the  Righteousness  of  God;  the  wit  of 
man  can  devise  no  more.'"  All  this  he  proceeds 
to  illustrate,  as  do  Beveridge,  Usher,  Hopkins, 
Hooker,  &c.  &c,  by  the  strong  forensic  view  of 
Justification  in  Rom.  viii,  32,  &c,  and  again  from 


141 


the  antithesis  of  Justification  to  Condemnation,  in 
the  New  Testament;  which  view,  he  says,  is  so 
necessary,  that  without  it,  "we  shall  never  take 
the  state  of  this  question  right,  nor  truly  understand 
the  mystery  of  this  name,  Jehovah  our  Righteous- 
ness." This  imputed  righteousness,  which  Oxford 
divines  call  unreal,  he  calls  a  "positive  righteous- 
ness," and  says  that  they  who  imagine  that  any 
other  will  serve  them  for  justification,  do  "shrink 
up  that  blessed  Name,  and  though  they  learn  the 
full  sound,  yet  take  away  half  the  sense  of  it  — 
they  spoil  Christ  of  one-half  of  His  Name."  "  This 
nipping  at  the  name  of  Christ,"  he  adds,  "is  for 
no  other  reason,  but  that  we  may  have  some  hon- 
our ourselves,  out  of  our  Righteousness."  Then 
he  shows,  from  Bellarmine,  &c,  how  all  this  char- 
acterizes Popery.* 

Under  a  solemn  sense  of  the  awfulness  of  the 
error  which  rejects  the  re-putative  or  accounted 
Righteousness  of  Christ  for  Justification,  and 
gives  the  glory  to  any  other,  in  whole  or  in  part; 
solemnly  believing  that  when  we  lose  this  imputa- 
tive doctrine  of  Justification,  we  lose  the  Palladium 
of  Christianity  —  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  and 
the  Mercy-Seat,  and  that  then  we  may  write  upon 
our  door-posts,  as  Vespasian  upon  his  triumphal 
banners,  after  his  legions  had  burned  up  the  Holy 
of  Holies,  Judgea  Devicta;  under  this  serious  be- 
lief, the  author,  after  such  a  noble  testimony  of 
holy  Andrews,  cannot  avoid  exclaiming,  in  the 
*  Bishop  Andrews'  Sermon  on  Jehovah  our  Righteousness. 


142 

words  of  his  admirable  contemporary,  Bishop 
Hall,  on  precisely  the  same  subject:  "Let  the  vain 
sophistry  of  carnal  minds  deceive  itself  with  idle 
subtleties,  and  seek  to  elude  the  plain  truth  of 
God  with  shifts  of  wit:  we  bless  God  for  so  clear 
a  light;  and  dare  cast  our  souls  upon  the  sure 
evidence  of  God,  attended  with  the  perpetual  evi- 
dence of  his  ancient  Church."* 


C. 
Progressive  Justification — page  99. 

There  are  some  who  maintain  what  they  call  a 
progressive  justification,  who  yet  deny  that  they 
mean  by  it  any  thing  short  of  entire  justification, 
or  that  they  suppose  a  believer  can  have  any  higher 
degree  of  justification  in  consequence  of  an  in- 
crease of  faith  or  other  Christian  graces.  They 
call  it  progressive  (they  say)  because  when  a  belie- 
ver commits  sin,  he  must  needs  go  again  by  re- 
pentance and  faith,  to  Christ,  and  obtain  a  new 
justification  from  that  sin;  and  thus  his  justifica- 
tion goes  on,  as  his  sins  go  on,  and  since  he  will 
not  cease  to  sin,  to  the  end  of  life,  he  must  be  jus- 
tified again,  and  again,  to  the  end  of  life;  and  so  his 
justification  is  progressive.  But,  supposing,  for 
the  present,  that  this  view  is  entirely  correct;  we 
lament  the  application  of  the  word,  because  of  the 
great  difficulty  of  preventing  misunderstandings 
*  Works,  is,  p.  244. 


143 

and  abuses.  When  we  speak  of  Sanctificatwn,  as 
progressive,  we  use  common  language,  and  are 
universally  understood  as  indicating  by  the  phrase, 
not  a  continuance  of  holiness,  from  hour  to  hour,  but 
an  increase  in  the  degree,  a  growth  in  the  power  and 
purity  of  holiness.  In  consequence  of  this  uni- 
versal understanding  of  a  common  expression,  he 
that  speaks  of  progressive  justification,  though 
he  should  mean  no  such  thing  as  progressive  in 
degree,  must  nevertheless  count  upon  being  so  un- 
derstood, and  upon  being  the  instrument  of  pro- 
moting, through  an  almost  necessary  misinterpre- 
tation, a  doctrine  which  he  does  not  hold. 

But  as  to  the  view  just  given,  is  it  correct  to  say 
that,  whenever  a  believer  sins,  he  must  be  justified 
anew?  The  question  is  equivalent  to  this:  Does 
his  justified  state  cease  when  he  sins  anew,  so  that 
he  comes  unto  condemnation  again,  and  must  be 
justified  again;  precisely  as  if  he  had  never  been 
justified  before?  The  answer  depends  upon  an- 
other question.  What  description  of  sin  is  sup- 
posed? Is  it  such  sin  as  is  incompatible  with  the 
supposition  of  a  man's  continuing  in  faith;  sin, 
such  as  involves  the  idea  of  his  being  no  more  a 
believer,  no  more  "in  Christ  Jesus,"  but  a  withered 
and  dead,  and  broken-off  branch?  Of  this,  we 
are  free  to  say  that,  wherever  such  a  case  is  found, 
if  ever  the  person  was  in  a  justified  state,  it  is 
now  lost,  and  condemnation  has  ensued,  and  must 
be  removed  by  a  new  effort  of  faith,  precisely  as 
if  he  had  never  believed  before.     But  such  is  not 


144 


the  description  of  sin  on  which  the  minds  of  those 
who  hold  the  view,  now  in  question,  are  fixed, 
when  they  speak  of  the  necessity  of  a  new  justifi- 
cation. Of  what  kind,  then,  are  the  sins  supposed? 
Why,  the  sins  of  the  believer;  of  him  who,  though 
he  sin,  does  not  thereby  cease  to  be  a  true  Chris- 
tian, is  not  fallen  from  his  union  to  Christ;  is  yet 
a  pious,  humble  disciple.  Well  then,  since  "There 
is  not  a  just  man  on  earth,  that  docth  good  and  sin- 
neth  not,"  we  must  all  acknowledge  the  truth  of 
what  Hooker  says,  that  "should  we  search  all  the 
generations  of  men  since  the  fall  of  Adam,  we 
could  not  find  one  man  that  hath  done  one  action, 
which  hath  passed  from  him  pure,  without  any 
stain  or  blemish  at  all;"  that  "the  best,  things 
which  wc  do,  have  somewhat  in  them  to  be  par- 
doned;" that  "the  little  fruit  which  we  have  in 
holiness  is  corrupt  and  unsound,"  therefore,  as  the 
Christian  is  always  doing,  therefore  he  is  always 
needing  to  be  pardoned,  always  sinning.  Whether 
he  sins  only  by  a  single  thought,  or  by  an  overt 
action,  matters  not  to  the  present  question,  so  that 
you  only  suppose  him  to  be  still  a  believer,  still  in 
Christ.  Now,  suppose  it  to  be  true,  that  his  every 
sin  requires  a  new  justification,  in  other  words, 
that  each  sin  terminates  his  previous  state  of  justi- 
fication, and  so  brings  him  under  condemnation; 
for  there  is  no  middle  ground.  Then  he  must  be 
continually  incurring  condemnation  ;  never  an  hour 
can  there  be,  in  which  he  must  not  be,  many  times. 
if  not  every  minute,  without  justification,  and  con- 


145 

sequently  under  condemnation.  But  certainly  this 
is  not  true.  The  state  of  the  Christian  does  not 
involve  such  incessant  and  entire  transitions  from 
peace  to  wrath,  and  back  again  to  peace.  Then 
we  ask  again,  concerning  him  whose  every,  even 
his  best,  deed,  has  something  that  needs  to  be  par- 
doned, is  he  "in  Christ  Jesus?"  By  the  suppo- 
sition, he  is.  But  "there  is  no  condemnation,  (says 
St.  Paul)  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus.'"* 
Though  he  sin,  therefore  he  does  not  come  under 
condemnation,  and  so  needs  not  any  new  justifi- 
cation. All  the  while  that  he  has  reason  to  con- 
fess that  he  does  what  he  ought  not  to  do,  and 
leaves  undone  what  he  ought  to  do,  he  remains  in 
an  uninterrupted  state  of  justification;  simply 
because  he  remains  or  "abides"  in  Christ;  is  still 
"found  in  him,  not  having  on  his  own  righteous- 
ness, but  that  which  is  through  the  faith  of  Christ." 
There  is  no  need  of  the  renewal  of  justification, 
because  there  is  no  cessation  of  union  to  Christ, 
and  of  the  imputation  of  his  righteousness.  If 
Noah  can  be  said  to  have  been  progressively  saved 
from  the  flood,  because  each  successive  torrent  of 
the  wrath  of  God  against  a  perishing  world,  found 
him  safe  within  the  ark;  if  the  man-slayer,  who 
had  fled  to  the  city  of  refuge,  may  be  said  to  have 
been  progressively  saved  from  the  avenger  of 
blood,  because,  each  day,  as  the  latter  brought  ac- 
cusation, and  sought  his  life,  he  was  found  within 
the  gates;    then  may  the  Christian  be  said  to  be 

*  Rom.  viii;  1. 
10 


146 

progressively  justified;  because,  each  time  that 
the  law  lays  sin  to  his  charge,  and  seeks  his  con- 
demnation, he  is  found  abiding  in  Christ  the  Ark, 
Christ  the  Refuge;  still  having  on  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  by  faith;  still  able  to  say:  "It  is  God 
that  justifieth;  who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?" 
There  is  an  "ever-living"  intercession  of  Christ, 
for  the  believer,  as  there  is  in  the  believer,  through 
continual  sin,  an  ever-living  need  of  that  interces- 
sion, and  must  be,  on  his  part,  an  ever-living  exer- 
cise of  faith;  keeping  his  case  in  the  hands  of 
that  intercession.  The  believer  lives  by  faith, 
though  he  be  not  always  in  the  act  of  expressing 
his  faith,  by  specific  plea,  or  prayer.  That  living 
faith,  it  is,  by  which  he  abides  in  Christ,  and 
shares  in  the  continual  oblation  of  his  merit;  so 
that  there  goes  on,  a  continual  imputation  of  the 
righteousness  of  Christ  to  the  repenting  and  be- 
lieving sinner,  which  can  only  be  interrupted  by 
such  a  fall  from  grace,  as  would  destroy  faith,  and 
so  sever  the  union,  which  faith  alone  established, 
and  faith  alone  continues,  and  thus  make  the 
Christian  an  apostate. 

But,  here  a  question  occurs: — Why,  then,  the 
necessity,  and  where  the  propriety,  of  the  Chris- 
tian's daily  prayers  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins; 
his  continual  pleading,  again  and  again,  of  the 
merits  of  Christ,  if  he  need  no  new  justification? 
We  ask,  for  reply,  does  the  Christian  believe  that 
he  comes  into  condemnation,  loses  justification, 
forfeits  God's  peace,  every  time  he   incurs    the 


147 

charge  of  another  failure  in  duty,  and  feels  the 
need  of  again  supplicating  mercy,  through  Christ? 
Oh  no!  In  his  happiest  states  of  mind  —  when 
most  assured  of  the  peace  of  God,  he  will  most 
humbly  and  penitently  confess  that  he  daily  and 
hourly  sins,  and  will  most  earnestly  entreat  God's 
forgiving  love.  So  then,  from  the  fact  of  such 
exercises  of  the  believer,  no  argument  can  be 
drawn,  to  prove  his  need  of  a  new  justification  for 
each  new  sin.  But  the  question  returns  —  why, 
then,  these  pleas  —  this  grasping,  again  and  again, 
the  merits  of  Christ?  We  answer,  because  it  is 
thus  he  holds  on  to  Ch  rist,  and  retains  a  place  in 
His  mediation,  and  keeps  his  name  in  the  list  of 
those  which  Christ,  in  his  ever-living  intercession, 
confesses  before  His  Father.  It  is  for  the  purpose 
of  clinging,  the  more  vigorously,  to  the  cross;  c*f 
making  more  sure  of  his  hold;  and  thus  of  feeling 
the  more  confidence  of  safety  in  Christ,  and  being 
able,  the  more  assuredly,  to  answer  the  charge  of 
a  violated  law.  We  can  well  suppose,  that  a  ship- 
wrecked mariner,  escaped  to  a  rock,  over  which 
the  surges  of  the  tempest  continually  beat,  though 
he  do  not  once  lose  hold  upon  the  refuge,  will  be 
continually  renewing,  and  fastening  again,  his 
grasp,  as  each  new  billow  swells,  and  menaces  his 
ruin.  So  is  it,  with  the  Christian.  He  abides  in 
Christ,  not  without  the  use  of  efforts  of  faith,  and 
means  of  grace,  any  more  than  he  first  came  to 
Christ  without  them.  His  first  coming,  and  enter- 
ing into  living  union  with  kim*  Y*as  by  an  effort  of 


148 

faith,  rising  in,  and  working  by,  prayer,  "uttered 
or  unexpressed."  He  maintains  that  same  union, 
by  the  daily  continuance  of  that  same  act  of  faith, 
working  by  the  same  spirit  of  prayer.  He  not 
only  maintains  the  union,  but  he  preserves  his 
sense  of  its  reality,  by  the  same  means.  Let  him 
restrain  prayer,  for  a  time,  and  though  he  should 
not  cease  to  be,  in  heart,  a  Christian,  but  only  to 
be  a  faithful  Christian,  he  ceases  to  possess  the 
comforting  evidence  that  he  is  in  Christ;  he  will 
not  feel  his  hold  upon  the  rock;  his  confidence  is 
gone;  he  knows  not  what  billow  may  drown  him. 
For  his  consolation,  then;  for  all  that  is  precious 
in  the  witness  of  the  Spirit  that  he  is  "in  Christ 
Jesus,"  for  the  preservation  of  his  union  to  Christ, 
though  not  for  any  new  justification,  as  if  the  for- 
mer were  lost,  must  the  Christian  maintain  a  con- 
stant renewal  of  his  confession  of  daily  sin,  and 
his  pleadings  of  the  daily  and  perpetual  interces- 
sion of  the  righteousness  of  Christ.  "As  we  have 
received  Christ,''''  so  we  are  directed  to  "walk  in 
him.''''  We  received  him  by  an  act  of  faith,  fleeing 
unto  him.  We  must  "walk  in  him,"  by  a  continu- 
ance of  the  same  act  of  faith,  holding  fast  to  him, 
as  our  "Life." 

It  is  well  said,  by  Augustine,  that  our  Justifica- 
tion consists  in  the  perpetual  remission  of  sin  —  not 
in  a  remission,  once  for  all,  at  the  first  act  of  our 
faith,  as  if  all  future,  as  well  as  all  past  sins,  were 
then  remitted  —  but  a  remission  perpetual  as  the 
ever-living  Intercession  of  Christ  for  us;   not  a 


149 

Justification  that  is  interrupted,  and  must  begin 
again  with  each  new  sin,  any  more  than  the  Inter- 
cession of  the  Great  High  Priest  is  intermittedr 
and  begins  again  with  each  new  sin;  but  a  justifi- 
cation which  keeps  pace  with  the  need  of  it,  just  so- 
long  as  we  continue  the  exercise  of  that-  faith 
which  makes  us  constant  members  of  Christ,  and 
so  makes  us  constant  partakers  of  his  interces- 
sion. The  going  up  of  the  incense,  out  of  the 
golden  censer  of  our  High  Priest  in  Heaven,  for 
us,  is  just  as  perpetual  as  the  abiding  in  us  of  a 
living  faith  in  his  Mediation.  Two  things  always 
went  together,  in  the  earthly  Sanctuary — the  pray- 
ing of  the  people  without,  in  the  Court  of  the- 
Tabernacle,  and  the  entering  of  the  High  Priest 
within  tho  Veil,  having  the  censer  of  incense,  and 
the  blood  of  atonement,  to  stand  before  the  Mercy 
Seat;  —  he  for  the  people,  they  in  hinu  Thus  are 
these  two  always  united,  in  the  Sanctuary  on  High, 
and  the  outer  Court  of  u  the  Israel  of  God"  here  on 
earth.  A  perpetual  prayer  ascends  from  the  belie- 
ver;  —  all  his  faith  is  prayer,  though  not  all  his 
prayer,  faith.  While  he  is  thus  outside  the  veil;- 
though  joined  with  his  faith,  there  be  continual  im- 
perfection, itdoesnot  break  his  peace;  while  the  law- 
is  constantly  laying  charges  against  him,  there  is  no 
condemnation;  he  continues  justified,  because  his 
faith  extends  beyond  the  veil,  and  keeps  his  poor 
name  in  "the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life;"  and  all  tha 
while,  the  Great  High  Priest  is  standing,  as  St. 
John  beheld  him,  in  vision,  "at  the  altar,  before 


150 

the  throne,"  "  having  a  golden  censer,"  witb 
"  much  incense,"  offering  it,  "  with  the  prayer  of 
saints."  So  that  when  the  law  accuses  the  be- 
liever  of  sin,  his  answer  is  not,  I  have  been 
already  justified,  in  time  past,  but  I  am  now  for 
refuge,  clinging  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  who  ever 
liveth  to  make  intercession  for  me.  Thus,  nothing 
can  separate  a  believer  from  the  love  of  Christ,, 
but  the  unbelief  that  would  make  him  cease  to  be  a 
believer.  "  If  we  walk  in  the  light,  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin;  that  is, 
it  never  ceaseth  to  cleanse  the  Regenerate  from 
the  sins  which  they  never  cease,  in  some  measure, 
or  other,  to  commit.  And  if  there  were  not  a  per- 
petual remission  of  our  sins;  or  if  the  cleansing 
us  from  our  sins  by  the  blood  of  Christ,  were  not 
as  perpetual  as  our  commission  of  sin  is,  even  the 
case  of  men  Regenerate,  would  be  lamentable" — 
Jackson's  Works,  iii,  292. 

"There  are  two  sort  of  sins;  (says  Usher)  one 
of  ordinary  incursion."  The  sins  of  the  Chris- 
tian's daily  course.  "These  break  no  friendship 
between  God  and  us;  these  only  weaken  our  faiihy 
and  make  us  worse  at  ease.  When  a  man  hath 
a  pardon,  and  it  is  almost  obliterated,  (its  evidence) 
its  letters  almost  worn  out,  that  they  cannot  be 
read,  he  would  be  glad  to  have  it  renewed.  Every 
sin  puts  a  great  blur  upon  thine  old  evidence,  that 
thou  canst  not  read  it.  It  may  be  firm  in  heaven,, 
and  yet  perhaps  may  be  blurred,  that  thou  canst 
not  read  it,  and  therefore,  if  thou  wouldst  get  it 


151 

cleared  again,  thou  must  go  to  God,  by  prayer,  and 
renew  it  again ;  so  that  whether  our  evidences  be 
blurred,  or  whether  it  be  that  God  will  make  us 
possess  the  iniquities  of  our  youth,  it  is  necessary 
for  us  to  pray  for  the  forgiveness  of  those  sins 
which  have  been  before  forgiven" — Usher's  Ser- 
mons, No.  xv. 

It  is  one  thing,  for  a  child  of  God  to  incur  the 
displeasure  of  his  Heavenly  Father;  another,  to 
forfeit  His  love,;  one  thing,  to  lose  the  light  of 
His  countenance  by  sin,  another,  to  lose  the  adop- 
tion of  sons,  and  the  promise  of  the  inheritance; 
one  thing  to  offend  God,  so  that  "/ie  correcteth  us," 
and  we  come  unto  tribulation,  because  our  comforts 
are  withdrawn;  another,  to  offend  him,  so  that  he 
withdraw  his  love  from  us,  and  we  come  into  con- 
demnation, and  abide  under  his  wrath.  Again, 
there  is  a  vast  difference  between  the  parental 
chastening  of  our  Heavenly  Father,  when  His  people 
sin,  and  He  correcteth  them  "as  a  father  doth  the 
son  in  whom  he  delighteth,"  and  the  judicial  wrath 
and  curse  of  God,  our  Judge,  under  which  all  abide, 
who  are  not  justified  by  faith,  through  Jesus  Christ. 
The  first,  every  son,  whom  God  receiveth,  must 
incur;  because  he  is  still  a  sinner,  and  needs  chas- 
tisement, to  make  him  partaker  of  more  holiness. 
But  such  expressions  of  God's  displeasure  are  no 
evidences  that  the  Christian  has  need  of  a  new 
justification  for  the  sins  that  caused  them.  On  the 
contrary,  they  are  evidences  of  God's  unabated 
love:  For  "  whom  the  Lord  loveth,  He  chasteneth" 


152 

To  the  same  effect,  writes  the  venerable  Bishop 
of  Norwich,  the  learned  and  pious  Reynolds,  in 
his  "Life  of  Christ:" 

"When  once  we  are  incorporate  into  Christ's 
body,  and  made  partakers  of  the  New  Covenant, 
though  we  are  still  under  the  Law's  conduct,  in 
regard  of  obedience,  (which  is  made  sweet  by 
grace;)  yet  we  are  not  unden  the  Law's  male- 
diction. So  that  though  sin,  in  a  believer,  be  a 
transgression  of  the  Law,  and  doth  certainly  incur 
God's  displeasure;  yet  it  doth  not  de  facto  (though 
it  do  de  merito)  subject  him  to  wrath  and  ven- 
geance. There  is  a  displeasure,  which  is  but  for  a 
moment;  a  wrath,  which  doth  only  sing  and  blow 
upon  the  soul,  and  then  away;  such,  the  faithful 
themselves,  after  some  bold  adventure  into  the 
ways  of  sin,  may  have  experience  of.  And  there 
is  a  wrath  which  is  constant,  permanent,  intimately 
and  everlastingly  adherent  unto  the  soul,  which 
will  seize  only  upon  unbelievers.  All  sins  do,  of 
themselves,  deserve  damnation,  but  none  do  de 
facto  infer  damnation,  without  unbelief.  This  was 
that  great  provocation  in  the  wilderness,  which 
kept  the  people  out  of  the  Land  of  Promise. 
*'  They  entered  not  in,  because  of  unbelief"  "  Take 
heed,  lest  there  be,  in  any  of  you,  an  evil  heart  of 
unbelief,  in  departing  from  the  living  God." — Rey- 
nolds' Works,  pp.  190-1. 


153 

D. 

Instrumental  Office  of  Faith — page  105. 

Matthias  Lauterwald,  a  minister  of  Upper  Hun- 
gary, well  esteemed  by  the  Reformers,  but  fond  of 
refinements  and  contention,  held  that  repentance, 
love,  and  obedience,  are  all  included  in  the  faith 
that  justifies,  and  are  thus,  conjointly  with  it,  the 
means  of  procuring  the  benefit  of  redemption.  On 
this,  Melancthon  delivered  the  judgment  of  the 
University  of  Wittemberg  —  in  which  he  says: 
"Though  true  faith,  or  reliance  on  the  Saviour, 
cannot  exist  in  those  who  go  on  securely  in  their 
sins,  and  are  destitute  of  contrition,  yet  contrition 
and  new  obedience  are  not  the  means  of  applying 
grace.  Contrition  necessarily  precedes;  but  when 
it  is  asked,  whether  as  a  cause  or  a  means?  we 
answer,  as  neither;  but  rather  as  a  wound,  or  the 
feeling  of  a  wound,  precedes  a  cure.  The  prom- 
ise is  embraced  and  applied,  only  by  faith,  and  not 
on  account  of  our  contrition,  or  the  virtues  that 
follow  after."  " Lauter wald's  corruption  of  the 
doctrine  does  not  differ  from  the  synecdoche  of  the 
monks,  who  say  that  faith  justifies  us  as  being  the 
originating  principle  of  love  and  good  works.  But 
the  fact  is  this:  nothing  but  faith  lays  hold  on  the 
promise.  In  this,  faith  differs  from  all  other 
works,  that  it  alone  embraces  the  promise,  and  re- 
ceives the  blessing,  as  unmerited.  Other  works 
offer  something  to  God;  nor  can  the  application  of 
the  blessing,  by  means  of  works,  be  understood  in 
11 


154 

any  other  way,  than  that  they  effect  it  by  some 
merit  which  they  possess.  Lauterwald,  therefore, 
while  he  rejects  the  name  of  merit,  retains  the 
thing,  and  imposes  on  himself,  by  vain  specula- 
tion. To  contrition,  grace  is  promised,  as  healing 
to  a  wound;  faith  applies  the  remedy;  but  in  no 
sense  can  it  be  said,  that  pardon  is  promised,  in 
consideration  of  the  ivorks  to  follow." 

Again,  in  a  letter  to  Brentius:  "  We  are  justified 
by  faith  alone,  not  because  of  that  grace  being  the 
root  of  all  virtues,  but  because  it  lays  hold  on 
Christ,  for  whose  sake  we  are  accepted,  whatever 
be  the  amount  of  our  renovation  —  which,  indeed, 
must  necessarily  follow,  but  is  not  the  thing  that 
gives  peace  to  the  conscience.  Love,  therefore, 
(though  it  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law)  is  not  that 
which  justifies,  but  faith  only  —  not  as  constituting 
any  perfection  in  us,  but  as  apprehending  (or  em- 
bracing) the  Saviour.  We  are  righteous,  (or  jus- 
tified) not  because  of  our  fulfilling  the  law,  or  of 
our  love,  or  of  our  renovation,  (though  these  are 
the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  us)  but  for  the  sake 
of  Christ  —  whom  we  apprehend  by  faith  alone." 
"Believe  me,  (he  adds)  the  controversy,  concern- 
ing this  subject,  is  momentous." — ScoWs  Continu- 
ation of  Milner,vol.  ii.  pp.  117 — 122. 

On  the  error  above  opposed  by  Melancthon,. 
Scott  adds:  "It  was  a  species  of  error,  which, 
though  it  much  agitated  the  Protestant  Church,  at 
that  time,  has  since  spread  its  influence  much  more 
widely,  and  been  much  more  permanent.    It  bor- 


155 

dered  closely,  on  what  was  maintained  by  the 
more  temperate  Papists  —  and  it  is  virtually  the 
same  which  is  still  supported  by  great  names, 
among  ourselves,  though  it  could  never,  to  any 
considerable  extent,  make  its.  way  among  Protes- 
tants of  the  age  of  the  reformation." —  pp.  1 16 — 17. 
Tillotson  is  acknowledged,  by  the  British  Critic, 
to  have  fallen  into  this  error.  "He. has  blended 
with  the  essence  of  justifying  faith,  its  inseparable 
concomitants,  or  rather,  with  faith  in  its  act  of 
justifying,  things  which,  though  they  are  a  part  of 
true  faith,  do  not  belong  to  it.  in  that  act."  This 
will  explain,  perhaps,  some  of  the  meaning  of  Til- 
lotson's  project  for  a  new  book  of  Homilies,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  old,  in  which,  Burnet  tells  us,  were  to 
be  Homilies  for  the  six  Sundays  of  Whitsunday, 
on  Justification,  containing  a  close  examination  of 
some  expressions  in  the  first  book  of  Homilies, 
"  that  seemed  to  carry  Justification  by  faith  only,  to  a 
height  that  wanted  some  mitigation"  *  In  reference 
to  the  error,  above  mentioned,  the  Critic  writes  — 
"To  say  that  our  repentance  and  obedience  are  to 
be  respected  in  the  act  of  justifying  faith,  in  the 
same  way  as  our  trust  and  confidence  in  the  meri- 
torious cause  of  our  pardon,  is  a  mode  of  speaking, 
which  does  not  sufficiently  distinguish  between  the 
Source  of  Life  and  the  path  to  life."  The  same 
writer,  considers  the  language  of  the  Homily  on 
Salvation,  quoted  in  the  Charge,  pages  106  and  107, 

*  Burnet's  Sermons  and  Essay,  1713,  p.  193  —  whose 
account  of  faith  harmonizes  with  that  of  Tillotson. 


156 

as  containing  "the  concurrent  doctrine  of  the  Refor- 
mation, in  expounding  St.  Paul,  as  briefly  expressed 
in  that  sentence  of  Chillingworth,  Faith  alone  jus- 
tifies, but  not  that  faith  which  is  alone?'' 

Such  were  the  views  of  the  British  Critic,  in  the 
beginning  of  1838  —  See  p.  121  of  xlv.  It  has 
since  become  the  special  organ  of  the,  so  called, 
"  Oxford  Divinity."  Probably,  therefore,  the  new 
Editor  would  prefer  to  say,  in  the  words  of  that 
system,  "that  Justification  is  gained  by  obedience 
in  the  shape  of  faith?'1 — Pusey's  Letter  to  the  Bish- 
op of  Oxford;  App.  p.  20. 

The  doctrine  of  the  Church  may  be  further 
illustrated,  by  the  following  citation  from  Bishop 
Beveridge :  "  The  Socinians  hold,  that  justifying  or 
saving  faith  is  nothing  else  but  obedience,  sincerely 
performed,  to  the  Law  of  God;  so  that  good  works 
constitute  the  very  form  and  essence  of  it.*  But 
this  contradicts  the  very  notion  of  faith,  in  gene- 
ral." Faith  and  obedience  "differ,  as  much  as  tho 
cause  and  effect  do:  for  faith  is  the  instrumental 
cause,  whereby  we  are  enabled  to  perform  obedi- 
ence—  and  they  have  different  objects  in  view,  for 
obedience  respects  only  the  commands,  but  faith 
looks  only  to  the  promises  of  God,  made  to  us  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Hence,  though  faith  be  always  ac- 
companied by  obedience  and  good  works,  —  yet 
in  the  matter  of  our  Justification,  it  is  always  op- 
posed- against  them  by  St.  Paul.  —  Rom.  iii,  28; 
Gal.  ii,  16."— Sermons;  No.  134. 

.    *  This  is  "obedience  in  the  shape  of  faith?* 


